Vertical: Comtes de Champagne

Decanter’s tasting director Christelle Guibert attended a rare vertical tasting of Taittinger’s famous blanc de blancs, with bottles from 1961 to 2007

Christelle Guibert on 18 vintages of Taittinger’s flagship

CHAMPAGNE EVOKES GLAMOUR and special occasions. Rarely does it bring to mind the windswept swedish town of malmö. But there we were, 17 lucky guests, gathered for an extraordinary vertical tasting of Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne.

This was thanks to our host marina olsson who, since 2008, has built an amazing private cellar. With over 800 different Champagnes, it must be one of the world’s biggest collections.

vitalie Taittinger also joined us at the tasting. hers is one of the few houses that is still family-owned, acquired in 1932 by her greatgrandfather, pierre Taittinger (though it was originally founded in 1734). Following pierre’s retirement, her grandfather François Taittinger took control; his brothers Jean and Claude joined the company in the late 1940s.

Following François’ death, Claude Taittinger took charge in 1960 and ran the company for over 40 years until it was sold to starwood Capital in 2005. vitalie’s father, pierreEmmanuel, fought hard to buy it back, and a year later it was returned to family control, thanks to the support of the union Champagne co-op and local growers. vitalie and her brother Clovis joined their father in 2006; she is the marketing and communications director, while he is export director.

Creating the cuvée

Comtes de Champagne is 100% Chardonnay and was introduced in 1952. Taittinger has released 36 vintages, with the 37th – the 2007 – due for release this month. The grapes are sourced from grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs, mostly Avize, mesnil-sur-oger and oger but also some from Chouilly and Cramant.

During the 1950s, vintages of Comtes de Champagne were made in oak barrels. In the 1960s oak was replaced with stainless steel, but chef de caves loïc Dupont re-introduced the barrels in 1988. The wine goes through full malolactic fermentation and spends between five and 10 years on lees, depending on the vintage. Today, thanks to riper grapes, the dosage is about 9g/l, compared to 15g/l-16g/l in the 1970s.

With a total production of 150,000 to 300,000 bottles, Comtes remains an exclusive deluxe cuvée; especially when compared with wines such as Dom pérignon, which is said to have a production of about 6 million bottles.