Champagne: Latest autumn releases tasted

Throughout the year, Decanter’s experts receive exclusive first tastes of the top new Champagnes, and as the festive season approaches, our correspondent Tom Hewson brings you his verdict on a clutch of superb, just-released cuvées.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the latest Champagnes released this autumn

Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 2013

The 2013 marks a significant release of this benchmark Blanc de Blancs, with Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs grand cru villages of Chouilly, Cramant, Avize, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.

After the highly expressive and outgoing 2012, the unusual 2011 and three skipped vintages before that, 2013 promises a classic, cool profile.

While the 2013 harvest began on 10 September, there were still grapes being harvested in some parts of Champagne on 19 October, making it one of the latest vintages of recent times. Average acidity levels across the region were the highest recorded since 2008.

The result is a wine that, while carrying Comtes de Champagne’s usual silkiness and verve, requires further patience upon release; even short-term cellaring (over just a year or two) will likely reap rewards, although the fullness of time will likely render this a classic Comtes.

The Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 2013 retails in the UK for £190.

Billecart-Salmon: two new Rendez-Vous

Billecart-Salmon’s series of limited edition, single-variety releases continues with two wines from 2015: Rendez-Vous No 4, a Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs grand cru of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Rendez-Vous Cinq, a Blanc de Noirs from Pinot Noir of the Montagne de Reims and Grande Vallée (Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay, Aÿ and Billecart-Salmon’s home village of Mareuil-sur-Ay).

2015 has remained a much-discussed vintage of contradictions in Champagne, with a number of critics agreeing that the wines (especially those involving Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) potentially show what author of Champagne: A Guide for Champagne Lovers and Gourmet Travellers, Essi Avellan MW, calls ‘vegetal’ characteristics, despite the abundant sun and ripeness of the year.

Chardonnay, though, often escapes this, with the selection of fruit from chalky Le Mesnil-sur-Oger highlighting ‘purity of fruit’, according to cellar master Florent Nys. The Blanc de Blancs especially presents a fine take on a vintage that continues to offer cause for discussion.

Rendez-Vous No 4 and Rendez-Vous Cinq both retail in the UK for £79.

Deutz, Amour de Deutz Blanc de Blancs Brut 2013

Less contentious is the character of the 2013 vintage, ably demonstrated by Deutz’s latest release of its flagship cuvée, Amour de Deutz Blanc de Blancs. It’s a wine that, while perhaps not grabbing the headlines (or investment interest) as frequently as some of Champagne’s better-known prestige blanc de blancs, offers a great deal of drinking pleasure and cellaring potential.

Amour de Deutz Blanc de Blancs Brut 2013 retails in the UK for £128.

Rare, Rosé Brut 2014

Champagne Rare’s rosé cuvée really is rare; there are just 600 bottles available in the UK according to Nicolas Marzolf, head of Champagne brands at its importer, Liberty Wines. Originally the prestige cuvée of Piper-Heidsieck, Rare now sits apart as an independent name in the EPI Group (which includes Charles Heidsieck), with winemaking duties conducted by Piper-Heidsieck’s chef de cave Emilien Boutillat.

It is Boutillat’s predecessor Régis Camus, though, who looms large in Rare’s rise to prominence over the last decade. And it is Camus’ love of Pinot Noir from the Aube village of Les Riceys that leaves a stamp on the 2014, ‘for its fruit, its strawberry fragrance,’ says Marzolf. Rare is made with the addition of a sizeable 18% of Les Riceys red wine, whereas the previous release, 2012, used just 8%.

The effect is a deeper, darker Rare Rosé, tempered slightly by the fact that Boutillat (who was in charge of disgorging the wine) used Chardonnay from Villers-Marmery as the liqueur de dosage (the wine and sugar mix added to Champagne after the yeast lees are disgorged).

Also tasted in magnum, which offered a slightly silkier texture and a promise of a slower ageing curve, this is a Rare Rosé well pitched for the table.

Rare Rosé Brut 2013 retails in the UK for £257.

Latest Champagne releases: tasting notes and scores

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