moet 2002
moet 2002
(Image credit: moet 2002)

Moët & Chandon has revealed that the 2004 vintage will follow the recent release of its 2002 Grand Vintage.

It will be released at the end of next year, Moët winemaker Axelle Araud told Decanter.com.

‘The ’02 is very complex but I think the ’04 will be a bit more subtle, more delicate,’ Araud said. ‘It has been on lees since 2005 and it should be very classical. It was a good ripening season.’

She would not divulge the composition of the blend, which changes each vintage. In 2002, it consisted of 51% Chardonnay, 26% Pinot Noir and 23% Pinot Meunier.

Moët, the world’s biggest Champagne house, produces Grand Vintage only in ‘exceptional years’, and took the unprecedented move to launch the ripe 2003 vintage prior to the 2002, which was slower to evolve.

Araud also said 2005 will not follow the 2004 vintage.

‘2005 was a great vintage in Burgundy and Bordeaux but not Champagne – it rained too much and was not well balanced. It will be not be a Grand Vintage.’

Written by Rebecca Gibb

Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).