Champagne 2012: Top bottles to buy this winter

The 2012 vintage stands out for the quality of the Champagnes, but also for an apocalyptic growing season that ended in heavenly conditions for the harvest.

Scroll down to see a selection of top-scoring 2012 vintage Champagnes worth seeking out 

The vintage conditions were hellish from the start, marked by winter and spring frosts, torrential rains and hailstorms. An outbreak of fungal diseases including oidium, a cold snap during the crucial flowering phase, some hydric stress and scorched berries during the summer leading up to the harvest made for an ongoing battle fought by wine-growers.

Didier Mariotti, today the cellarmaster for Veuve Clicquot but holding that post for GH Mumm back in 2012, confesses that already in February, ‘it was a particularly complicated start for the season’.

Denis Brunner, deputy cellarmaster for Bollinger, evokes a biblical scene when he declared that ‘we were confronted with the seven plagues of Egypt’. A major blow was the drop in winter temperatures to as low as -20°C, which could prove harmful for the budding phase.

Fortunately, March was comparatively mild, and budding was in the end quite early, especially for Chardonnay. Then drama struck on the morning of 17 April when temperatures plummeted to -5°C in the vineyard – but even as low as -7.7°C in the city of Reims – causing significant damage to younger vines.

Record rainfall

From April to July, rain drenched the region, with June marked by a cumulative rainfall twice as high as normal for the month – in fact, an all-time high since 1961. Hail joined in the havoc, affecting nearly 1,000 hectares, mainly in the Aube to the south.

Under such wet conditions, fungal diseases, including both downy mildew and powdery mildew – which rarely strike at the same time – were particularly virulent. Wine-growers had to redouble their efforts to combat such scourges and preserve the harvest.

It was under these cold and rainy conditions, as noted by Denis Brunner, that flowering began on 19 June, leading to incidents of couture, or shatter, in which some berries failed to set or even fell off the bunch, but also millerandage, which is poor fertilisation resulting in small grapes without seeds, although retaining the capacity to ripen at a different pace. 

Fortunately, the rain stopped in mid-July in the aftermath of a few hailstorms, giving way to a hot and dry August, but one without heat spikes. There was, according to Dennis Brunner, ‘some hydric stress, but not that much, thanks to some welcome rain at the right moment, so the harvest was able to begin 90 days after flowering, which conformed to the 10-year average.’

Didier Mariotti observed that the harvest proceeded without a hitch and was relatively ‘carefree’.

Purity and potential to age

‘2012 is a vintage marked by a slow-ripening crop in which the three classic grape varieties attained the same level of maturity and retained satisfactory acidity,’ is Denis Bunner’s appraisal. He added that ‘it is a great vintage that has produced generous Champagnes offering aromatic panache, textural density, and a similarity to those of 2002.’ 

It is easy to agree with him when tasting Champagnes that offer both immediate gratification but also ageing potential, as evidenced by the crystalline and incisive palates that distinguish many of the samples from this vintage.

Indeed, the best 2012s should reveal their greatness even more over time and demonstrate the qualitative progress that continues to be made both in the vineyards and in the cellars throughout the Champagne region.

Stylistically, the slow ripening of the grapes in 2012 was a key factor in producing an alluring array of radiant and vivacious Champagnes endowed with bright, white fruit and floral scents.

Overall

The overall character is definitely less sun-drenched than that of recent heatwave vintages with their spicy, pastry notes. This difference of character is just as apparent on the palate, with 2012s marked by crisp purity, fresh aromatics and impressive length, all boosted by racy acidity.

The frost, hail and wet conditions during the growing season certainly lowered yields, but also led to more concentrated grapes for the remaining crop, hence the marked density of texture for these Champagnes, while the degree of ripeness enabled by the warm summer ensured their potential for ageing.

In the end, against all expectations during the run-up to the harvest, 2012 turned out to be a great vintage, especially for Pinot Noir, another key element for producing Champagnes that will stay the distance.

Fresher and less solar in style than those of 2010, the wines also surpass those from 2013 and will rival the best examples produced in certain sectors of the region in 2014. There is nevertheless one significant downside, which is a certain heterogeneity in quality due to the challenging weather throughout much of the growing season.

See a selection of top-scoring 2012 vintage Champagnes worth seeking out 

The following Champagnes have all been recommended on Decanter Premium during the past 12 months.

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