2008 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose
Buying options
Tasting notes
Exclusively made with Grand Cru fruit, the impressive and powerful 2008 Comtes de Champagne Rosé is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay, with 12% still red wine blended in to give the wine its gorgeous colour and phenolic framework. Tight at this stage, the 2008 Comtes is slow to reveal itself on the nose, but gradually the rich, leesy notes are complemented by vibrant red cherry, redcurrant, crème pâtissière and a citrus note – almost grapefruit pith. After an astounding 12 years on lees, the wine has a remarkably fine, persistent mousse, with a savoury autolytic note. Alongside a tight core of sweet berry fruit, there’s a steely, saline minerality that runs through the wine, building to a citrus-led finish scented with strawberry and cherry blossom. Rich and precise, this regal wine will reveal even more with a decade in bottle.
Critic scores
Average Score
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
Yohan Castaing, Decanter
More reviews and scores
Taittinger's 2008 Brut Comtes de Champagne Rosé, which arrives on the market this year, has unwound considerably since I last tasted it. Offering up inviting aromas of red berries, plums, sweet spices, orange rind and freshly baked bread, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and vinous, with an ample core of fruit, lively acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. As I wrote in 2019, Taittinger is using more Pinot Noir and opting for longer sur lattes maturation for this bottling, and the result is that Comtes Rosé is becoming a more gastronomic Champagne. Deceptively charming as this 2008 is today, I suspect it will tighten up with a little age on cork.
The proportion of Pinot Noir in Comtes de Champagne Rosé has tended to increase in recent years, as evidenced by this 2008 vintage, which is almost 70% Pinot Noir. There is 15% red wine, and the rest is Chardonnay. With notes of spices, black cherry, morello cherry and black fruit, the bouquet is impressively complex and delicious. On the palate, the vinous texture, fine bubbles, depth and complexity allow for a long, chalky, chiselled finish. This is a gastronomic Champagne rosé with great ageing potential.
About the producer
Champagne Taittinger is one of the region’s leading Grande Marque Champagne houses and also one of the largest, when it comes to vineyard ownership. It is also the producer behind one of the region’s best loved vintage Blanc de Blancs: Comtes de Champagne.