Winemaker Notes
Pale gold in color with delicately toasty aromas alongside fruit and complexity. This wine is creamy and beautifully balanced with a dry, harmonious finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Bread crust, sliced apples, citrus and some raspberries on the nose of this refreshing Champagne. Crisp on the palate, with fine bubbles and a tight, clean finish. A third each of pinot noir, meunier and chardonnay.
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Wine Enthusiast
The nose shows precise, chalk-driven minerality layered with apple flesh, white peach, and fleshy tangerine. The palate is creamy yet bright, focusing on pear, white peach, and delicate florals, and finishes with a clay-chalky note. A classic and reliable selection.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The latest rendition of Pol Roger’s NV Brut Réserve is based on the 2021 vintage and includes 30% reserve wines from the 2020, 2019 and 2018 vintages. Disgorged in October 2024 with a dosage of eight grams per liter, the wine bursts from the glass with an expressive bouquet of crisp pear, orange zest, ripe peach and delicate pastry notes. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied, with a vibrant core of fruit and admirable balance, despite what might sound like a relatively generous dosage. It is infused with bright acidity and culminates in a persistent, saline finish. Composed in equal parts of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, this cuvée is immediately appealing upon release yet possesses the structure to reward several years of cellaring, revealing the charm of a finely matured Champagne.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The heart of the production, the bright yellow NV Champagne Reserve Brut is approachable and open, with ripe white peach, powdery citrus, sherbet, and powdery earth notes. The Vin de Reserve is the most complex of the wines to blend, as it is composed of three vintages. With a 2021 base, the liqueur de tirage is to keep the integrity of the blend, which offers notes of pear, white peach, pastry dough, and orange blossoms.
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Wine Spectator
This is a citrusy version, with kumquat-infused acidity framing flavors of crunchy pear, white cherry, Meyer lemon, citronella,mineral and spices. Lacy in texture and lingering on the finish.Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
A term typically reserved for Champagne and Sparkling Wines, non-vintage or simply “NV” on a label indicates a blend of finished wines from different vintages (years of harvest). To make non-vintage Champagne, typically the current year’s harvest (in other words, the current vintage) forms the base of the blend. Finished wines from previous years, called “vins de reserve” are blended in at approximately 10-50% of the total volume in order to achieve the flavor, complexity, body and acidity for the desired house style. A tiny proportion of Champagnes are made from a single vintage.
There are also some very large production still wines that may not claim one particular vintage. This would be at the discretion of the winemaker’s goals for character of the final wine.
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.’