Lanson Gold Label Brut 2008
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Lanson Gold Label Brut Vintage is aged for at least five years to develop the aromas and flavors that typify the chosen year – and the unique house style. Powerful, complex and harmonious. Ideal with white meat and fish dishes. With beautiful aromas of ripe, candied fruit such as apricots, figs and raisins, followed by gently honeyed flavors and a sprinkle of spice.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From a great vintage, this wine both reflects the year and also shows the producer's trademark crisp style that keeps the wine's natural acidity. That approach lends itself to aging and this wine, now 11 years old, is still intensely fresh. It only just shows signs of maturity and toast. That means it will age further, probably at its peak from 2022.
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Wine Spectator
Notes of oyster shell, graphite and spice are a fresh and aromatic entry for this vibrant Champagne, layered with firm, focusing acidity and flavors of poached apricot, black cherry, lemon curd and slivered almond. Offers a lovely, creamy texture and a juicy quality to the mineral-laced finish. Disgorged February 2016. Drink now through 2033.
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James Suckling
This has seen more than six years of ageing in the cellar and has attractive concentration and nicely played complexity. The nose is as fresh as you'd expect from Lanson with all yellow grapefruit and lemon but some pastry too. The palate, meanwhile, has a refreshing sweep of acid-driven, lemon fruit and is super pure, fresh and long. A great-value wine here.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
In all probability the finest rendition of this cuvée since 1996, Lanson's 2008 Brut Vintage Gold Label is an impressive wine in the making, unwinding in the glass with aromas of white flowers, lemon oil, orange rind, apple and freshly baked sourdough. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, racy and incisive, with a concentrated but tight-knit profile that exemplifies the house's non-malo style, concluding with a long and penetrating finish. It's a terrific value in the world of seriously age-worthy Champagne.
Rating: 93+
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Founded in 1760, Lanson is one of the oldest Champagne Houses.
Drawing on family heritage and unique expertise, the men and women of Lanson have been guided for 260 years by their love of a job well done and their love for others.
The unique and authentic style of Lanson Champagnes rests on four immutable pillars: a meticulous selection of Crus; a vinification according to the traditional Champagne principle; a rare collection of reserve wines, and a longer aging in cellars.
Hervé Dantan, Lanson Winemaker, carefully crafts elegant wines, that are characterized by an inimitable freshness, fruitiness and vitality.
Lanson Champagnes bring people together. They are made to be gifted and shared with our cherished ones. The Lanson Cross, carefully marked on each bottle, is timelessly emblematic of this philosophy.
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.’