Collection Vintage 2012 Blanc de Blancs - Limited Edition - Monogram
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The grapes selected for this 100% Chardonnay Champagne are sourced predominantly from the Côte des Blancs, bringing freshness and minerality, and from Sézannais, Montgueux and the Marne Valley. This mosaic of vineyards and soils (clay, limestone and chalk) brings great aromatic complexity to this cuvée.
THE 2012 VINTAGE
Winter 2012 will go down in history as the return of the Ice Age, largely due to a prolonged spell of severe frost during the first two weeks of February and temperatures much lower than the 10-year average: a record-breaking -20.9°C (-5.62 F) in Reims on 3rd February.
Spring was particularly chaotic, with more frost between April and mid-May, during the Ice Saints in mid-May when hail struck part of the vineyard. Fortunately, the hot, sunny weather that set in at the end of July and continued until the start of the harvest on 10th September, promoted ideal ripening in the grapes. Though low in volume, the grapes were perfectly healthy. The Chardonnay wines resulting from the 2012 harvest are complex, fresh, lively and well-balanced, with a generous finish.
Aged at least 6 years in our cellars.
A delicate bead forms a regular, pirouetting stream of bubbles.
The wine is bright and delicately golden in appearance, tinged with silver-green. Elegant and graceful, this Champagne is initially underpinned on the palate by bucolic, springtime notes of fresh flowers and angelica. The complex aromas gain in intensity, revealing notes of fresh honey and plums, followed by mint and coriander on the finish. The perfectly balanced freshness will support this delicately mineral Blanc de Blancs as it attains its true potential.
The Collection Vintage 2012 Blanc de Blancs combines the purity and elegance of chardonnay with the rich character of the vintage.
FOOD AND WINE PAIRINGS:
Fine dining
Salmon tartare and sesame seeds
Minty goat's cheese wraps
Roasted King prawns and finely-chopped coriander.
"King cake" brioche
Relaxing interlude
Green asparagus risotto
Veal casserole
Vegetable linguine
Waffles
Fine dining
Hard-boiled egg, seeded bread soldiers with truffle butter
Line-caught sea bass with herbs in a Champagne sauce
AOP Tête de Moine cheese
Rocamadour cheese
Blanc de Blancs Champagne
3 main grape varieties are used in the composition of champagne: Chardonnay, a grape with white skin and white juice, Pinot Noir and Meunier, two grapes with black skin and white juice.
A Blanc de Blancs champagne is made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes: it is the most sought-after grape variety in champagne because it brings finesse, elegance, freshness and liveliness to the wine.
On tasting, Chardonnay brings citrus fruit aromas. But, after a few years of evolution, it develops notes of candied fruit, toasted bread, brioche and pastries.
2012 in Champagne
This vintage celebrates one of the Champagne region’s finest successes. It is a miracle that this excellent vintage even came to light, given the challenging weather conditions hardly conducive to creating a fine wine. As Winter temperatures plummeted, the hillsides saw record lows the likes of which rarely experienced, before unleashing abundant, even violent hailstorms in Spring. By early July, the vines still showed a week’s delay compared to the 10-year average. But to coin an old French saying “Août fait le moût“. August makes the harvest – never was this more true than in 2012. The hot, sunny weather that set in until the harvest began early September encouraged ideal ripening in the grapes. The draining, smoothing effect of the soils played a key roleas any excess water was absorbed by the chalk during the summer months and proved a useful supply to the vine when needed. Reduced quantities of grapes on the vine also contributed to their impressive ripeness and concentration.
