Vertical of Taittinger CdC, CdC RD and a few Mature Bordeaux

WINE TALK
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Last evening I had the fortunate honor of being included in a comprehensive Taittinger Comtes de Champagne tasting and dinner. While drinking CdC is always a great treat last night was ratcheted up due to a number of reasons. First and foremost reason -the attendees. Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger, Cathleen Burke-Visscher (Senior VP Kobrand) and Antonio G. made up a who’s who trio in the Champagne world and for comedic relief there was the Hillbilly and the Evictor.

The line-up of Champagnes were -

1971 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1973 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1975 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1976 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1973 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose
1981 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1983 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1985 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1986 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1988 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1989 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1990 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1993 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1993 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1994 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1994 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Magnum
1995 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs R.D.
1995 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1996 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs
1998 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs

I’m going by memory, so I hope I got the list 100% correct.

Antonio is going to be writing an article on the evening, so I’ll just make some brief comments.

Taittinger has never done a R.D. program nor do they plan to do one in the future. In fact, they only started holding back bottles within the past 25 years. A total of two bottles per vintage were recently disgorged with all of the bottles being disgorged on the same day in December 2009.

The '71 was my wine of the night. When this wine is on, as it was last night, it is about as good as a champagne can get. Amazing sweet fruit on the nose, but no sweetness on the palate. The '73 was heavier than the '71 (if served blind I would have guessed there was pinot in this) with more caramel flavors. This grew in the glass as the evening went on but never reached the heights of the '71. The '75 had an odd nose, but initially was excellent on the palate. Key word, initially, as it fell apart in the glass after 30 or so minutes. The '76 was also stellar, but hasn’t yet developed the complexities of its older siblings. The '88 was shockingly fresh with the vintage’s characteristics showing through.
As far as the RD’s, the '86 and the '93 were my two favorites. Both coming from mediocre vintages, they were surprisingly complete champagnes expecially the '93, while the '86 had great smoky charactersitics.

All of the champagnes were initially drunk without food. However, since there were only six of us there was plenty left in each bottle to revisit as we moved upstairs and had dinner. Unfortunately, Antonio had to leave before we had our dinner, but several replacements were beckoned and joined the group at various times during the meal.

Along with finishing our champagnes, we had some Bordeaux. '34 Margaux showed very well, and is fully mature so I’ll be pulling the corks on my remaining bottles sooner rather than later. '45 Latour was a disappointment for me - better bottles of this are monumental. This bottle lacked fruit and was drying up. A bigger disappointment was the corked bottle of '59 Mouton Rothschild R.C. Both the '59 and '66 Palmer were solid bottles but none of the Bordeaux really moved my on this evening; it was all about Taittinger Comtes de Champagne.

Huge thanks to Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger, Cathleen Burke-Visscher and Antonio G. for allowing me to join them for a truly unique experience.

PS. Marea/Michael White did a great job as always with the food and Francesco did an amzing job with the wine service. Also, the new design in the private room is now much more spacious and comfortable.

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Comments on the '96 CdC?

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Bill,

While I’m generally not a huge fan of the '96 CdC - let me preface it by saying I do like it but I prefer the '95 CdC better and they’re the same price so I’m a bigger buyer of the latter - due to some reductive notes on the nose. While those notes were still showing on the bottle last night, they were much more subdued and the gap between the '95 and '96 was much narrower last night than it has been in the past. The '96 wasn’t a “special” bottle in that it didn’t come from Taittinger’s cellars so I’m assuming it was a typical showing. I’m going to revisit a bottle or two of my '96’s in the near future for comaparison sake.

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Ray - how did the 98 show?

Any reccos on an ideal window of drinking if I want to drink this at its peak?

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Thanks Ray. At some point in the near future I hope to have a '96 CdC along with a '96 Krug and '96 Salon.

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Me too [dance-clap.gif]

Peter,

The '98 is still very primary. A lot of minerals and chalk. I wouldn’t open a bottle for a least a few more years.