Taittinger - Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne Comtes de Champagne 2008 (750ml)
Price: $265.00
| Producer | Taittinger |
| Country | France |
| Region | Champagne |
| Varietal | Champagne Blend |
| Vintage | 2008 |
| Sku | 2517 |
| Size | 750ml |
James Suckling: 99 Points
A slightly more luxurious nature to the 2008 than the great 2007. Full-bodied with a lovely framework of acidity and dry fruit such as apples pears and peaches. Opulent. Dense and muscular. Yet it’s balanced and harmonious. Line of acidity at the end. One for the cellar. Release in 2020. Drink or hold.
Vinous: 98+ Points
Taittinger’s 2008 Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is simply breathtaking. I have tasted it many times over the years in various trial disgorgements and it has never been anything less than compelling. The final finished wine captures all of that potential. Bright focused and wonderfully deep Comtes is a fabulous example of a vintage that expresses so much energy but with real fruit intensity the signatures that distinguish it from other vintages (1996 comes to mind) that were similarly taut but more austere in the early going. Although the 2008 impresses right out of the gate it only really starts to open up with several hours of air. The 2008 Comtes represents the purest essence of the Côtes des Blancs in a great historic vintage. Readers who can find the 2008 should not hesitate as it is a truly brilliant epic Champagne that no one who loves the very best in Champagne will want to be without. -- Antonio Galloni
Wine Advocate: 98 Points
This bottle of Taittinger's eagerly anticipated 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne had been disgorged in July 2018 and the wine is showing brilliantly unfurling in the glass with a vivid bouquet of citrus oil green apple warm brioche crushed chalk and blanched almonds. On the palate it's full-bodied and searingly intense with striking concentration and incisive but perfectly integrated acids displaying a fine mousse and remaining quintessentially elegant despite its undeniable power and persistence. The finest Comtes de Champagne since the brilliant 2002 this is a terrific vintage for this dependably age-worthy cuvée and though it's already impressive the wine is built for the long haul: conserved in a cold cellar the 2008 will still be in fine form three decades from now. One of Champagne's largest houses Taittinger is also among the region's largest landholders with their 288 hectares of vineyards supplying some 40% of their requirements. Since 2006—once again under family control—Taittinger has been going from strength to strength. Vinification is mainly in stainless steel though around 30% of the maison's small Folies de la Marquetterie cuvée ferments in foudre and since 1988 a small proportion—amounting to around 5%—of the vins clairs for Comtes de Champagne spend a few months in wood. The Taittinger style is pure and expressive emphasizing charming fruit but gaining in tension and taking on a gently reductive edge as one ascends the house hierarchy to the flagship Comtes de Champagne bottlings. Comtes is one of the most reliably age-worthy wines in Champagne yet it continues to represent terrific value when compared to—frequently inferior—tête de cuvée bottlings from other Grandes Marques. And the eagerly anticipated 2008 vintage previewed during this tasting with chef des caves Alexandre Ponnavoy will be worthy of enthusiastic pursuit when it is released sometime within the next 12-18 months. Two others cuvées that fly under the radar are the Folies de la Marquetterie—from parcels Taittinger is farming in pursuit of riper more concentrated fruit—and the Prélude Grands Crus a seriously age-worthy Champagne that sometimes gets somewhat lost in the Taittinger range. I'll be reporting in more depth on this important house in the near future but for now all these releases come recommended.
John Gilman: 97 Points
The 2008 Taittinger “Comtes de Champagne” Blanc de Blancs is a beautiful young wine with stunning precision on both the nose and palate a serious girdle of acidity and stellar depth and mineral drive on the palate. This is not anywhere near as accessible and charming out of the blocks as the 2006 was at a similar point in its development but there is even superior potential here for those with the patience to allow it to truly blossom with some further cellaring. The bouquet jumps from the glass in a vibrant blend of apple pear lemon zest warm bread chalky minerality white lilies and just a whisper of buttery oak buried down deep. On the palate the wine is pure full-bodied and rock solid at the co
