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Wine Description
The Story
The name of Cuvée 1522 is a tribute to the year when the Philipponnat family settled in the village of Ay, in the heart of the Champagne wine-growing area. The family’s ancestors can be traced back in time through the House archives right back to the first, Apvril le Philipponnat, who from 1522 owned vines in “Le Léon”, between Ay and Dizy.
the blend
58% Pinot Noir and 42% Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir comes from our vineyard at “Le Léon” in Ay, and the Chardonnay from Mesnil-sur-Oger.
vinification
A portion of the wines are vinified in wooden barrels without malolactic fermentation to preserve the wine’s freshness, allowing it to develop complexity. Both ample and tangy, this cuvée is eminently suitable for low dosage, extra brut, with only 4.25 g/litre, which is just one third of the conventional dosage for a brut champagne.
aging
Aged for eight years. After this time, the freshness is still apparent, but the benefit of aging on lees has reached full potential.
Wine Information
The House of Philipponnat created this Cuvée in memory of the year when the Philipponnat family first took root in Ay, at the very heart of Champagne.
An exceptional Cuvée, the wine is produced from only using the very best grapes, grown in the best Philipponnat vineyards and then blended to the highest standard of Prestige Cuvées.
Both balanced and complex, it is dosed as an Extra-Brut and has a crisp freshness that enhances its extraordinary length and the special characteristics of the 2003 vintage. Being a Rosé, the low dosage enhances the perception of the fruit in a very unusual way, both pure and intense.
Its very distinctive style aims for intensity rather than power. It is very long on the palate while the aromas remain precise and delicate. A versatile wine, it is a stunning match with such different dishes as slow-cooked red meat, lobster, red berries...
Vintage 2003
A challenging vintage for Champagne in the face of an unprecedented heatwave during the summer months. The wines are characterised by the year's unusual circumstances. Large-scale frosts destroyed most of the projected yield and they were followed by hail and an extremely hot summer. Harvest was kick-started early on August 21st and yields remained minuscule at 8,100 kg/ha. Atypically round, ripe, sun-kissed wines that miss freshness and backbone. The total acidity level was notably low, at 5.8 g/l. Only the very best performers were able to avoid heaviness and overripe aromatics. This vintage was not largely declared but some famous names, Krug and Dom Pérignon at the fore, chose to experiment with it. Both produced excellent 2003s and Dom Pérignon's chef de cave at the time named the vintage as one of the creations he is most proud of. Some special cuvées surfaced, such as 2003 by Bollinger, as the house found the year did not stylistically fit into the La Grande Année range. Palmer & Co also took a curious route and made its 2003 only in magnum, releasing it much later than usual as cuvée Grands Terroirs. The ageing capacity of 2003 is much debated. Dom Pérignon's Richard Geoffroy had great confidence in his 2003 and he actually regretted releasing it too early. The jury is still out, but personally I am inclined to drink mine sooner rather than later, as the advancement post-disgorgement has in most cases been rather rapid and the wines miss the acidic backbone necessary for retaining freshness.