Veuve Clicquot Vintage 2004
Special Offer Price - Now 46.95 each. (Veuve Clicquot Vintage Champagne in Gift Box)
Tasting Notes:
A pale gold colour with silver accents. It has a brilliant aspect and effervescence is lively and long-lasting. The nose is very open, pure and complex. The Chardonnay gives this wine a refined mineral flavour accompanied with pleasant flowery notes of acacia.
Aerating the wine reveals hints of yellow-fleshed fruit and pastries (brioche, marzipan). These give way to delicately spicy aromas, followed by elegant notes of liquorice and high-bred teas. In the mouth the wine is silky and generous. The expectations promised by the nose are met and even exceeded as the complexity of this wine is superlative: simultaneously evoking fruity and floral, mineral and spicy notes, menthol and toast. This wine is quite simply dazzling with its wealth of aromas, and a deliciously long and powerful finish.
This elegant vintage is already remarkably well-balanced, and it will continue to enchant the palate for at least 15 years. Meanwhile, this wine can accompany the most refined dishes. It is eminently suitable for the most original matches. Try it with bass tartare, poached turbot served on a bed of fresh pasta, or cappuccino of Bresse chicken with candied citrus fruits .Keen devotees will enjoy it as an aperitif for very special occasions.
The 2002 vintage is made up of 60% Pinot Noir, 7% Pinot Meunier and 33% Chardonnay. The choice of grape classification is of vital importance. The blend includes 17 crus only, which are either Grand or Premier Crus.
These are located in the Montagne de Reims including Pinot Noir from Verzenay (Grand Cru) and Pinot Meunier from Ludes (Premier Cru), in the Grande Valléede la Marne with Pinot Noir from Aÿ (Grand Cru) and in the Côte des Blancs where Le Mesnil-sur-Oger constitutes one of the best Chardonnay (Grand Cru) vineyards. A dose of 9g/l of sugar was added.
Background Information:
In 1772, Philippe Clicquot founded a wine-making business under the name Clicquot. In 1798, his son François, who had taken over the family enterprise, married Barbe Nicole Ponsardin. At the time of François' death in 1805, the young 27-year-old widow decided to continue her husband’s legacy. A woman of vision, she became the driving force behind the prestige and success of the brand, which in 1810 was renamed Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin.
Ever in pursuit of excellence and innovation, in 1816 Madame Clicquot invented the riddling table with the aim of obtaining clarified champagnes of unrivalled quality. She became known by her contemporaries as the "Grand Dame of Champagne", in recognition of her audacity and determination. Row by row, Madame Clicquot used her skills to develop an exceptional wine-growing territory, consisting of 515 hectares in the heart of the Champagne region’s finest vineyard estates.
Today, both in France and abroad, the Veuve Clicquot brand continues to embody the values held dear by Madame Clicquot: modernity and audacity blended together with an emphasis on quality and expertise that are second to none.
Made only in exceptional years, this wine is a blend of Grands and Premier Crus, and all harvested in the same year. The strength due to two-thirds of black grapes is balanced by finesse and elegance of the remaining third of Chardonnay.
Veuve Clicquot Vintage made its appearance in 1810. The following year in 1811 after a comet crossed the Champagne sky this vintage became known as the “Year of the Comet”.
