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Veuve Clicquot dazzles with launch of La Grande Dame 2018
Veuve Clicquot has launched the 2018 vintage of its prestige cuvée La Grande Dame. Natalie Earl meets with cellar master Didier Mariotti at the Paris launch to uncover this hotly anticipated vintage.
Veuve Clicquot launched the 2018 vintage of its top-tier cuvée La Grande Dame at a luscious dinner event in the Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology in Paris.
The decadent yellow-drenched table arrangement, set for 100 guests and bedecked with a frothing, golden scene of daffodils, buttercups and dainty gypsophila, aptly reflected the streets of the city, dripping with spring blossom.
Scroll down for the tasting note and score of La Grande Dame 2018
(Image credit: Veuve Clicquot)
A hotly anticipated vintage
2018 was a generous year in Champagne, sun-soaked and peaceful, with smiles and no sorting table drama – blessed relief after a disastrous 2017.
‘It was an easy harvest, in an organisational sense,’ says Veuve Clicquot cellar master Didier Mariotti, ‘we didn’t have to sort, there were no real problems, even during the growing season.’
Figuring out where such an abundant crop of grapes was going to fit in the winery was the only real issue.
The summer was hot with lots of sunny days, but significant rain over the winter had topped up the vines’ water reserves. They could draw this on throughout the dry growing season.
And arguably this is key to how the wine now tastes in the glass. ‘If we hadn’t had this rain in the winter, I think we’d have had a very different expression,’ says Mariotti.
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Because despite the calm of the vintage, in the bottle La Grande Dame 2018 is far from lazy. It’s racy, mineral and tightly coiled.
The warmth comes through in its sun-kissed ripe stone and citrus fruit, yet it’s smart and precise. Delectable candied orange rind builds to a crescendo of yuzu and coconut cream.
A luminous and energetic iteration of La Grande Dame.
(Image credit: Veuve Clicquot)
Terroir
As is the norm for La Grande Dame, 90% of the blend is Pinot Noir, sourced mostly from the Montagne de Reims.
But for Mariotti, contrary to many, ‘it’s not the provenance that matters most’.
‘We always taste blind,’ he says, ‘I don’t want to be influenced by the provenance. I don’t focus on one specific cru or terroir, I focus on the wine.’
Yet the year’s impeccable grapes from the Montagne de Reims, notably from Verzy and Verzenay, could well be the reason behind such clarity, precision and salinity – or as Mariotti calls it, positive bitterness – in the wine.
‘It’s still a teenager,’ says Mariotti, ‘but what I like about this wine is its energy and desire to discover the world.’
Who knows what sort of world this wine will discover in its future, but any future drinker of 2018 La Grande Dame will be richly rewarded.
Join us for a New York masterclass:
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)
Date: Saturday 7 June 2025 from 11am to 5pm
Location: Bay Room at Manhatta, 28 Liberty Street, 60th Floor New York, NY 10005
Regional Editor for France & Sustainability Editor
Natalie is Decanter's France editor, commissioning and writing content on French wines (excluding Bordeaux) across print and digital. She writes Decanter's coverage of Languedoc wines, as well as a monthly magazine column, The Ethical Drinker, which unpicks the thorny topic of sustainability in wine. She joined Decanter in 2016.
