Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill Brut with Gift Box 2002
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator - Decanter
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Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
With its gold color and mature, toasty flavors, this is possibly the greatest Winston Churchill ever. It has weight and richness, with a dense, full and rich texture. It's in perfect balance, bringing together maturity and crisper apple and green plum fruit flavors that are cut with lemon. A mineral edge gives a nervy character that will allow this magnificent wine to age further.
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James Suckling
Fabulous aromas of dried apple, cream, mango and ginger follow through to a full, dense palate, but it’s very fine. The bead is so, so fine. The texture is like silk. Truly superb. I love the contrast between richness and freshness. It builds slowly on the palate and finishes so long and rich. This was 10 years on the lees. Mostly pinot noir. This follows the 2000, 1999, 1996 and 1995.
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Wine Spectator
There's a sense of quiet elegance and grace to this harmonious Champagne. Refined and lacy in texture, with finely wrought acidity lending focus and length to the spice- and graphite-laced flavors of ripe apricot and blackberry, lemon meringue pie, chopped almond and briny mineral.
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Decanter
More about structural fascination than aromatic pleasure. With its high acidity and simultaneously rich and impressive depth, this is reminiscent of the heroic 1996, and is equipped to develop far into the future.
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Pol Roger is one of the few remaining family-owned grande marque Champagne houses. Their grande marque status was guaranteed at the turn of the century when about 20 producers banded together to establish exacting quality controls for Champagne. The annual production at Pol Roger - less than 120,000 cases - is found in the best restaurants of France, England, and the USA, and is exported to over 30 countries. Pol Roger also was the Champagne of choice of British dignitary Sir Winston Churchill, who once said of Champagne, "...In victory I deserve it, and in defeat I need it!".
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’