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Wine Description
The Story
With 288 hectares of vines, the Taittinger family are one of the largest vineyard owners in Champagne. Their holdings provide half of their needs for their annual Champagne production. Such extensive vineyard ownership is viewed as a way to control quality, but the company also concentrates on workforce management.
A system of task-related employee contracts has been adopted over the last 20 years at Taittinger, replacing hourly contracts. Today, each employee has sole responsibility for about three hectares of vines, including a requirement to meet specified yields. In other words, they work in a similar way to independent growers and are paid by the task rather than by the hour.
Vintage 2016
This year trialled the growers with many climatic hazards from excessive rainfalls to frosts, downy mildew, hail, draught and, finally, sunburn. A cool spring saw late-April frost, which cut volumes early on. Mildew was an issue throughout the region (especially in the Côte des Bar), equally diminishing volumes. July and August were then hot and very dry months and the resultant sunburn reduced the yields further. Ripening was uneven, and Chardonnay especially needed time and was thus considered the most difficult variety for the vintage. Overall volumes were down to 9,163 kg/ha, offering balanced wines with an average potential alcohol of 9.9% and total acidity of 7.4g/l. Fruit-forward, lush wines with vibrant acidity.