Taittinger - Champagner Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 2008

JAMES SUCKLING: "The perfect blanc de blancs. 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. Totally in tune. Superb. Deep and complete. Has everything. One for the cellar. It is the greatest Comte ever. It has everything. A perfect upgrade from two years ago. Drink or hold."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Taittinger's 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is being released this year, and it will be worth a special effort to track down. I wrote in August 2019 that this is the finest Comtes de Champagne since the brilliant 2002, and this tasting confirmed that. Offering up a deep and complex bouquet of citrus oil, crisp orchard fruit, warm brioche, crushed chalk, blanched almonds and smoke, it's full-bodied and incisive, with excellent concentration, racy acids and a long, searingly chalky finish. While this is already immensely impressive out of the gates, this 2008 is clearly built for the long haul, and three decades' longevity won't be a challenge."

WINE ENTHUSIAST: "Coming entirely from Grand Cru vineyards in the Côte des Blancs, the new release of this famous Champagne is from a top vintage year. The wine is at perfect maturity, poised between crisp, taut minerality and wonderful toastiness. It is intense, beautifully clear and limpid, a great Champagne. It is ready to drink now and for many years to come."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Firm and lively. Arguably more Comtes than 2008 although it’s wonderfully long. Throbs. Still quite tight and tensile."

WINE SPECTATOR: "Fresh and graceful, this dances across the palate with its fine, lacy mousse and seamless knit of delicate flavors of ripe Anjou pear, tangerine peel, toasted almond and candied ginger. The flavor range expands through the lasting, chalky finish. Drink now through 2033."

DECANTER: "Lemon to gold ingot, bright and welcoming, an impression enhanced by a fabulous nose of sherbet, brioche, lemon posset and Mirabelle plum. All things nice. The palate is gently luxurious, its sophistication rippling with nuance rather than sheer vulgar power, yellow fruits, the gentlest hints of honey, crushed chalk and then a silky citric grip. In these rather claustrophobic times, the wine carries us along the Corniche in an open-top car, vintage naturally enough, the azure backdrop at its purest on this, the finest of Spring mornings. Drinking Window 2020 - 2040."