Winemaker Notes
With beautiful aromas of ripe, candied fruit such as apricots, figs and raisins, followed by gently honeyed flavours and a sprinkle of spice.
Blend: 49% Chardonnay, 51% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
With 49% Chardonnay and 51% Pinot Noir from grand cru vineyards, this well-balanced wine is just coming into its best years. Crisp and dry, following the Lanson style of no malolactic fermentation, the wine is full of white fruits, citrus and hints of toast, based around a tangy, mineral texture. Drink now and until 2025.
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
Quite pure grilled almonds and lemons, dried cherries and almost curry-like spices, plus chalky minerals and stony savory notes. The palate has a fine, even and balanced shape. Lemon citrus, pear and apple flavors run amid nicely phrased acidity. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Yellow-golden in color, the 2005 Gold Label Vintage Brut has a deep, ripe and vinous nose. Rich, ripe and full on the palate, with finesse, elegance and a good, pretty long finish, this is a complex cuvée that is built more on maturity than freshness this year.
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Wine Spectator
Smoke and marzipan notes are layered with baked currant and lemon curd flavors in this lively Champagne, with a creamy mousse. Balanced and accessible, showing spice and toast accents on the clean-cut finish. Disgorged December 2014. Drink now through 2025.
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.’