VEUVE CLICQUOT PONSARDIN VINTAGE CHAMPAGNE, FRANCE

Vintage Champagne is only made in the best years and aged longer than non-vintage before release. This ensures an exceptional wine, like this one, with its beautiful toasty aromas leading to delicious lemon and cherry fruit overlaid with butter pastry flavours. This is pure essence of style!

With its distinctive orange label, the Veuve is a sexy, sophisticated Champagne. Made only in the best years, the vintage version is a Pinot Noir dominant style, with intense, super dry fruit characters and a firm acid backbone.

Cuvée,

The Vintage 2002 is made up of 60% Pinot Noir, 7% Pinot Meunierand 33% Chardonnay. The choice of grape classification is of vital importance. The blend includes 17 crusonly, which are either Grand or Premier Crus.

These are located in the Montagnede Reims including Pinot Noir from Verzenay(Grand Cru) and Pinot Meunierfrom Ludes(Premier Cru), in the Grande Valléede la Marne with Pinot Noir from Aÿ(Grand Cru) and in the Côte des Blancswhere Le Mesnil-sur-Ogerconstitutes one of the best Chardonnay (Grand Cru) vineyards.A dose of 9g/l of sugar was added.

Sensory notes,

The 2002 vintage has a pale gold colour with silver accents. It has a brilliant aspect and effervescence is lively and long-lasting.

The nose is very open, pure and complex. The Chardonnay gives this wine a refined mineral flavour accompanied with pleasant flowery notes of acacia. Aerating the wine reveals hints of yellow-fleshed fruit and pastries (brioche, marzipan). These give way to delicately spicy aromas, followed by elegant notes of liquorice and high-bred teas.

In the mouth the wine is silky and generous. The expectations promised by the nose are met and even exceeded as the complexity of this wine is superlative: simultaneously evoking fruity and floral, mineral and spicy notes, menthol and toast…This wine is quite simply dazzling with its wealth of aromas, and a deliciously long and powerful finish.

This elegant vintage is already remarkably well-balanced, and it will continue to enchant the palate for at least 15 years. Meanwhile, this wine can accompany the most refined dishes. It is eminently suitable for the most original matches. Try it with bass tartare, poached turbot served on a bed of fresh pasta, or cappuccino of Bressechicken with candied citrus fruits.Keen devotees will enjoy it as an aperitif for very special occasions.