2018 Champagne Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill

The 2018 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill is supremely classy and polished, just as it was last year. Crushed rocks, slate, mint, chalk and dried herbs all race through to the intensely vibrant, mineral-drenched finish. This is so resonant, so sculpted. I would give the 2018 at least a few years in bottle, as recent tastings suggest it is entering a period of dormancy.

The 2018 Champagne Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill Brut is spicy with white pepper, tobacco leaf, and delicate currant, but today the raspberry and citrus shine more brightly. Coming from the Grand Cru, it features chocolate cherries, with hints of cocoa and a frothy mousse, but it needs time to come together. It’s refreshing in its acidity, with a pillowy mousse, and is a pleasing vintage. Drink 2025-2050. The wines for this report were tasted both at the estate with chef de cave Damien Cambres and in my office in New York. Pol Roger is a sixth-generation, family-owned business founded in 1849 that is based in Epernay and solely focused on Champagne. Damien Cambres replaced former chef de cave Dominique Petit in 2018. Since 2011, they have fully moved to stainless steel fermentation and aging. They house 9.5 kilometers of cellars that are notably deep at 33 meters underground and employ four full-time riddlers to turn the bottles and carefully collect sediment from them. (Only 11 exist in the region today.) This year, they completed a new facility for packaging and shipping that rests on the footprint of the historical site of the original cellars, which disastrously collapsed in 1900, destroying 1.5 million bottles. They own 92 hectares today and produce approximately 1.7 million bottles annually. Pol Roger is a Pinot Noir-based house that focuses on the art of blending. The wines tend to strike a balance of refinement in the mousse without shying away from power and structure across the range.

Disgorged in June 2024 with a dosage of seven grams per liter, Pol Roger’s 2018 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill introduces itself with aromas of ripe pear, candied tangerine peel and peach mingling with dried fruit. On the palate, it is full-bodied, vinous and broad-shouldered, with a rich core of fruit and an ample, textural mid-palate, underpinned by ripe yet vibrant acidity. The wine concludes with a long, enveloping finish. Reflective of the warm growing season with a late-August harvest, this is a giving Sir Winston Churchill—undeniably in the more muscular register, with ample gourmand flesh and a presently blocky density that will reward some patience.