Average rating 4.9/5 stars across all Google and external reviews
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Bought directly from Hatch Mansfield, the UK agent for Taittinger. The bottles are stored in bond at London City Bond Eton Park, in ideal conditions at a constant 13°C. For same-day deliveries, small quantities are kept in our office cellar, where the temperature is maintained between 11–13°C. We source all our bottles directly from the Maison or their official UK office, eliminating the risk of poor storage. This is crucial, as champagne quality is highly sensitive to heat: temperatures above 18°C accelerate maturity significantly, which compromises quality.
Originally known as Forest-Fourneaux with history dating back to 1734 and in 1932 Pierre Taittinger bought the House and the Taittinger label was born. A century of incredible growth saw Taittinger become one of the biggest producers and today is one of the last big independent, family-owned Houses. Pierre-Emmanuel retired in 2019 and was succeeded as President by his daughter Vitalie. They own 288-hectares of vineyards and the Taittinger style is the high percentage of Chardonnay. In 2017 Taittinger received two environmental accreditations: the ‘Viticulture Durable en Champagne’ (Sustainable vine-growing in Champagne) and the Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE – High environmental sustainability.)
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé is a prestige cuvée made entirely from grapes sourced from the best vines in the prestigious Côte des Blancs and Montage de Reims regions. It is only produced when the harvest is of exceptional quality worthy of a vintage year. Winemaking methods involve strictly using just the first press juice and ageing 5% of the wines for four months in new oak barrels - a third of which are renewed every year - to enhance the intrinsic qualities and complexities of the final blend. The Pinot Noir grapes, 15% of which are made into red wine, originate from the famous vineyards of Bouzy. Presented in 18th century antique style bottles, this hand-crafted champagne is aged eighteen metres underground in the UNESCO status Saint-Nicaise cellars in Reims for a minimum of eight years before being released.
Weather in 2008: After a rainy but mild winter without any prolonged cold spells, spring arrived with some very localised frosts. Cool weather returned in June and the infrequent sunshine prolonged the feeling of freshness. The spring to autumn weather was bright with sunny spells and the long, hot days and cool nights during September gave the grapes excellent acidity during the harvest period. The 2008 vintage is fast emerging as one of the best since the renowned and now-legendary 2002. Harvesting took place in the sunshine, though relatively cool temperatures, from 15 September to 10 October, which meant the grapes were ripe and very healthy.
Technical Information:
Vineyards: 100% Grand Cru | Pinot Noir: Bouzy | Chardonnay: Avize, Chouilly, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger | Red Wine: Bouzy
Grape Varieties: 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay | inc. 12% Red Wine
Lees Ageing: 12 Years
Dosage: 9 g/l
Drink: Now to 2031
Tasting Note: Classy nose full of Pinot Noir fruit of exotic spices, cherries and peach. The characterful Bouzy red wines shines through. Big structure with bold tannins but there is also big fruit behind, still in a reserved stage. Great acid structure and silky textural feel. Full on rich palate. So much concentration here. Shows evolution while still holding back a lot. Very correct yet full of character. A beautiful future Comte Rosé but this one still deserves plenty of time in the cellar. - Tasted by Essi Avellan MW
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose 2008 does not come in branded gift-box
With history dating back to 1734, Champagne Taittinger is the third oldest House in the region. When Pierre Taittinger purchased Forest-Fourneaux in 1932, the label was officially born and a century of incredible growth saw Taittinger become one of the biggest producers and one of the last big independent, family-owned Houses. This changed briefly after a takeover in 2005, however the House was bought back into the family in 2006 by Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger. Today, the brand has been successfully refreshed with entrepreneurial spirit and is firmly under family control: Pierre-Emmanuel retired in 2019 and was succeeded as President by his daughter Vitalie, supported by her brother Clovis who was promoted to Managing Director primarily focusing on global sales.
The proud owners of 288-hectares of vineyards in the best localities, Taittinger self-supply half of their grape needs. The hallmark of the Taittinger style is the high percentage of Chardonnay, providing the characteristic elegance, delicacy and freshness for which their champagnes are so well-known. The pride of the House is the pure-Chardonnay prestige cuvée Comtes de Champagne, a pioneering blanc de blancs that ranks amongst the finest of all prestige cuvées. In late 2015, Tatittinger announced that they had started sparkling wine production in Southern England.
In 2017 Taittinger received two environmental accreditations : the ‘Viticulture Durable en Champagne’ (Sustainable vine-growing in Champagne) and the Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE – High environmental sustainability.)
Born in 1979 in the region of Dijon, he decided to come to Reims following his MA in Agronomy at the Jules Guyot Institute (University of Burgundy) and ENITA Dijon. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Oenology-Champagne Wines majoring in Quality, Marketing, Legislation and Management. Taking advantage of his educational background he joined a Champagne House in Reims, for which he went to vinify wines in California. From 2007 to 2015, he worked at the Champagne Technological Station as a consulting oenologist. He advised more than 150 wine estates, merchants and cooperators in Champagne (but also in the rest of France and abroad) and accompanied them through the development and marketing of their sparkling wines.
In April 2015, Ponnavoy joined Champagne Taittinger to work alongside Loïc Dupont, immersing himself in the house's philosophy and techniques . After a few years of collaboration, he assumed the role of Chef de Cave in 2017. Ponnavoy brings a more technical and modern approach, with a background in both oenology and viticulture. A mission to uphold the house's style while introducing greater precision and freshness. Continued emphasis on Chardonnay and long lees ageing for top cuvées. Ponnavoy's work is already evident in newer vintages of Comtes and the refinement of the Brut Réserve and Prestige Rosé.
Under Ponnavoy's leadership, Taittinger has reinforced its commitment to sustainable viticulture. The vineyards are managed without herbicides, and practices such as cover cropping and mechanical weeding are employed to promote environmental health and grape quality. Beyond his work in Champagne, Ponnavoy is instrumental in Taittinger's English venture, Domaine Evremond, located in Kent. He applies his expertise to craft English sparkling wines that reflect the same dedication to quality and style as their French counterparts.
Coming from a long-standing Reims family, Loïc Dupont was influenced, from a very young age, by his apprenticeship in the vineyard and wine on the farm of one of his uncles, a harvester-manipulator in Vertus. He chose to complete his training by joining the Reims oenology school, which awarded him his diploma in 1978.
After two jobs, one abroad in a sparkling wine region, he joined Champagne Taittinger in 1984 alongside the Cellar Master Maurice Morlot. There he learned his trade and, above all, the Taittinger style. From 1987 to 1992, he actively participated in the launch of Domaine Carneros a winery created by Champagne Taittinger and Kobrand in the south end of Napa Valley. In 2000, he took up the position of Cellar Master of Maison Taittinger, taking over from Maurice Morlot. His legacy; he is very much the one who fine tuned the Maison style, there was never a weak wine under his tenure, everything was made with a very high level of consistency. Loic also brought that trademark “freshness” to Comtes de Champagne, masterful use of ascorbic acid also known as vitamin C in the right mix acts as an antioxidant.
Expert Reviews
17++/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“Aromatic and quite floral. Big and introvert, still needs more time on lees. They are busy changing things. Only about 10% of the volume of the Comtes Blanc de Blancs is made. ”
96/100
Essi Avellan MW
“Anyone who has tasted Comtes rosé knows that it is a particularly structured rosé, with a twist of ripe tannins. Such a structured wine needs time to evolve and mellow, and now the winemaking team has extended its ageing time. A much appreciated move for the tight and firm 2008, which comes with a stylish, reserved nose of elegant Pinot Noir fruit: exotic spices, dark cherries, quince and baked peach. The characterful Bouzy red wine part that gives the wine its colour shines through. This is a tightly knit wine with fine tannins, but there is substantial fruity depth behind. Great acid structure and a silky textural feel. There is so much concentration here waiting to bloom. A beautiful and painfully slowly ageing Comtes rosé that deserves plenty of time in the cellar. Dosage 9g/l”
95 → 97/100
Essi Avellan MW
“Classy nose full of Pinot Noir fruit of exotic spices, cherries and peach. The characterful Bouzy red wines shines through. Big structure with bold tannins but there is also big fruit behind, still in a reserved stage. Great acid structure and silky textural feel. Full on rich palate. So much concentration here. Shows evolution while still holding back a lot. Very correct yet full of character. A beautiful future Comte Rosé but this one still deserves plenty of time in the cellar. ”
96/100
William Kelley
“Taittinger's 2008 Brut Comtes de Champagne Rosé, which arrives on the market this year, has unwound considerably since I last tasted it. Offering up inviting aromas of red berries, plums, sweet spices, orange rind and freshly baked bread, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and vinous, with an ample core of fruit, lively acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. As I wrote in 2019, Taittinger is using more Pinot Noir and opting for longer sur lattes maturation for this bottling, and the result is that Comtes Rosé is becoming a more gastronomic Champagne. Deceptively charming as this 2008 is today, I suspect it will tighten up with a little age on cork.”
96/100
Kristaps Karklins
“Offering up a deep bouquet of blood orange, wild raspberry and plum, mingling with brioche and hints of Sichuan pepper, the 2008 Comtes de Champagne Rosé—disgorged in 2019 with a dosage of nine grams per liter—has developed nicely since I first tasted it that same year. Medium- to full-bodied, elegantly muscular and vinous, with a tauter core of fruit in the context of its siblings and laden with bright acids, it culminates in a long, chalky finish. Currently showing more depth than the 2012 and more incisiveness than the 2009, it stands out as one of the more complete renditions of this cuvée. A blend of 63% Pinot Noir and 37% Chardonnay, it derives from a harvest that took place in late September and extended into early October.”
93/100
Antonio Galloni
“The 2008 Comtes de Champagne Rosé presents a classically austere façade. Crushed berry, mint, chalk and dried herbs emerge on the bouquet, and yet the wine remains very tight, even with aeration. The Comtes Rosé has a track record of aging brilliantly. Today, though, I am not sure the fruit will ever fully emerge. ”
97/100
Yohan Castaing
“With notes of spices, black cherry, morello cherry and black fruit, the bouquet is impressively complex and delicious. On the palate, the vinous texture, fine bubbles, depth and complexity allow for a long, chalky, chiselled finish. This is a gastronomic Champagne rose with great ageing potential. ”
95/100
Yuri Shima
“Bright medium pink colour. Fresh and vivid pomegranate, raspberry and plum, complete with lightly buttered toast and caramel biscuits. Rather linear in body with beautiful, crystalline acidity. it still has some austerity, yet it is delicious with depth. The complexity of flavour continues on the palate, with a chalky, salivating finish.”
Today on The Friday Bubble with @essiavellan MW, we compare the new release of Taittinger Prestige Rose NV alongside its predecessor. This is a new blend of Taittinger Rose launched with the dominant year of 2019 vintage in mid 2023.
We are selling an extremely rare complete set of The Taittinger Collection: The Art of Champagne - 13 champagnes in total, from vintage 1978 to vintage 2008.
Earlier this year, we tasted a range of 2018 vins clairs with winemakers at fifteen different houses in Champagne. Thanks to exceptional weather throughout the year, some have been calling it 'the vintage of the century' and expectations are already sky-high. But just how much potential does 2018 have?
The unusual weather patterns in 2018 produced the "perfect conditions for the vineyard", according to new Taittinger Chef de Cave Alexandre Ponnavoy. We met last month to taste the vins clairs, which displayed incredible specificity: each wine showcasing the distinctive characteristics of its individual origins.
Our trip to Reims in August included a smorgasbord of Taittinger: over twenty champagne tasted with head winemaker Loïc Dupont, including an interesting look into the future with Comtes de Champagne 2008 and 2012.
We tasted the 2016 base wines with Vitalie Taittinger, Loïc Dupont & Damien Le Sueur. Discussing the influence of oak barrels, the new 'image of Taittinger Rosé', the potential for Comtes 2016 and Taittinger's new winery; this was a truly eye-opening visit.
