“...a mini-2008...What an absolute delight...97 points." Antonio Galloni, Vinous, April 2025

Released for sale this morning, the 2014 vintage of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs receives 97 points from Vinous, The Wine Advocate and James Suckling, and is once again the best-value of the prestige cuvée champagnes, at a relatively modest £595 per six in bond.  Order a case today for delivery this autumn and you could be enjoying the 2014 with friends and family at Christmas! 

Taittinger remains one of the few Champagne Houses to be owned and actively managed by the family named on the label.  Named after a 13th-century Count of Champagne who legendarily brought the chardonnay grape back to the region from the Crusades, Comtes de Champagne is made with grapes from the 5 Grands Crus classified villages on the Côte des Blancs: Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger.  These villages lie on a strip of ancient chalk, close to the surface, which retains warmth and moisture, as well as imparting mineral notes to the wines. 

For Comtes de Champagne, only the tête de cuvée is used, with 5% of the wine aged for 4 months in new oak barrels, one-third of which are replaced each year.  Annual production averages from 100,000 to 300,000 bottles (compared to around 800,000 for Cristal).  After bottling, Comtes de Champagne is aged in Taittinger's Saint-Nicaise cellars in Reims, 18 metres below ground, in a series of Gothic tunnels built in the 13th century beneath a Benedictine Abbey, using much earlier Gallo-Roman chalk tunnels. 

2014 was the last cool year in Champagne, in comparative terms, before a run of warmer vintages over the last decade.  To illustrate the point, 2014 was one of the last vintages to be harvested in October, compared to harvests in September and even August in recent years.

The growing season saw an especially long and cold winter, with spring starting late, but in mid-April, an exceptional summer began: warm, dry and bright, with over 800 hours of sunshine, a record for Champagne.  The grapes developed with excellent concentration and freshness, and some light rain showers in early September helped the bunches gain further volume and ripeness. 

This long, slow ripening produced grapes that have made intensely concentrated wines, yet with racy acidity and saline freshness, described by Galloni as "a mini-2008, similar in its linear personality, with just a touch more mid-palate creaminess...a Comtes that plays in the realm of tension and energy...97 points."  Re-tasting the 2014 in the office this morning, we find it full of poise and elegance, with the notes of chamomile, mint, and white flowers mentioned by Galloni to the fore, but we also think this will develop magnificently over the next decade. 

Availability of large formats is extremely limited.

Offered in bond, available this October.