First Taste: Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Itération No. 26

Champagne Laurent-Perrier has long gone against the grain with its Grand Siècle cuvée. ‘It was the 1950s, and the first prestige cuvées in Champagne were appearing,’ explains Lucie Pereyre de Nonancourt. Her grandfather (and founding president of the house) Bernard de Nonancourt found it surprising that these new prestige cuvées were being released as single vintages, rather than blends of several years. ‘Even among the most exceptional vintages they have their own personalities. So he decided to do something unique: to recreate the perfect year,’ she says. Scroll down to see Tom Hewson's review for Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Itération No.26 [subscriber-content] Grand Siècle is always a blend of three vintages, all of which have featured as releases of the house’s standard vintage Champagne .

Blending for Grand Siècle involves ‘only taking the good, rather than blending the great years with the weakest,’ says Edouard Cossy, global director of Grand Siècle, referring to the fact that multi-vintage blending in Champagne tends to be seen as a way to ride out some of the region’s capricious climatic variability. From non-vintage to multi-vintage: Champagne rips up the rule book

Only 11 grand cru villages have ever been used in Grand Siècle since its inception in 1959. The cuvée reflects the house’s gentle bias towards Chardonnay . Itération No. 26 is composed of 65% from the 2012 vintage , 25% from 2008 and just 10% from 2007. The final blend takes in 58% Chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Cramant, Avize and Oger together with 42% Pinot Noir from Ambonnay, Bouzy, Tours-sur-Marne and Verzy. Like all Laurent-Perrier wines it was fermented entirely in stainless steel, with an extended ageing of 10 years on lees. Laurent-Perrier’s new cellar master Maximilien Bernardeau described 2012 in relation to Murphy’s Law (which dictates that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong): freezing spring temperatures, rain and hail into June were hardly auspicious signals for the vintage. Yields were already down 30% by July. Summer kicked in, though, and the smaller than average yield ripened up startlingly well, with a concentration not only of ripe, juicy fruit but also acidity. [caption id="attachment_507914" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Credit: www.laurent-perrier.com[/caption] See a vertical tasting of eight versions of Laurent Perrier’s flagship cuvée back to 1973.

When it came to 2008, Bernadeau joked that he ‘used to describe it as “the perfect year”, but now [since working on Grand Siècle], I can’t!’ Its classic, tight and long-lived structure is complemented by the dash of 2007, which featured ‘the summer during the spring, and the autumn during the summer,’ says Bernadeau. 2012’s natural ebullience shines through in Itération No. 26, which is perhaps less tightly strung and demanding of bottle age than the superb Itération No. 25, but no less fine. This multi-vintage (rather than non-vintage) approach seems tailor-made for power duos such as 2008 and 2012, and drinkers will be richly rewarded with a cuvée that takes the very best from all three years on show. A benchmark for Champagne’s school of purity and finesse. Grand Siècle Itération No.26 will retail at £205 per bottle and will be available at Berry Bros & Rudd, Harrods, Hedonism and The Finest Bubble. [/subscriber-content] Tom Hewson's tasting note and score: [wine-collection] Related articles Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle: vertical tasting Champagne 2012: Top bottles to buy this winter Champagne 2008: A ‘miracle year’? Tasting the latest releases from Laurent-Perrier