Winemaker Notes
A perfect marriage of delicacy and intensity with freshness and harmony, Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2000 reveals the full aging potential typical of the great chardonnays from the Côte des Blancs.
This wine will be appreciated at any celebration to enhance those wonder fully intense, rare moments. It will go very well with seafood or fish starters (such as white tuna carpaccio with truffles).
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Disgorged in 2010 and now at full maturity, the 2000 Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is drinking with great generosity, wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet that mingles aromas of roasted cacao beans, gingerbread, lemon confit and marzipan with a touch of buttered toast. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and multifaceted, ample and textural, with a layered core yet without any heaviness, enlivened by a pinpoint mousse and culminating in a long, enveloping finish.
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Wine Spectator
A savory, aromatic accent of dried herb and candied orange peel notes mixes with yellow peach, kumquat, honey, graphite and creamy mineral. Very refined and elegant, with finely tuned acidity driving this to the mouthwatering finish. Drink now through 2020. 1,700 cases made.
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Wine & Spirits
This chalky chardonnay yields scents of toasted brioche and apple butter. There’s a lot of creaminess to it, while the nutty savor and precise bubble keeps it firm. For grilled langoustines.
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.’