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Comtes de Champagne 1998

Taittinger, Champagne, France

Taittinger
Champagne France
  • 96
    Points
  • The 986 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 9 Pros of
    10 recommend
    this wine
668 96
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    856

  • Producer ranking ?

    30

  • Decanting time

    10

  • When to drink

    now to 2025

  • Food Pairing

    Sea Scallop and Passion Fruit Carpaccio

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne is the finest expression of the world famous wine from one of the greatest Champagne Houses. First produced in 1952, Comtes is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes from 5 Grand Cru sites in the Côte des Blancs. Showing a pristine pale yellow colour with very light, abundant bubbles which rise uniformly to form a fine mousse. The evocative bouquet opens with notes of pears and fresh cute white flowers. Left in the gla...

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Wine Information

A beautiful pale yellow colour with a silver sparkle and delicate and abundant bubbles. This vintage has an intensely delicate and airy nose, which develops on into the scent of white flowers and mineral aromas, combined with hints of fresh almond, vanilla and a subtle note of resinous wood. The taste is at first extremely fresh and dominated by citrus fruits, lemon zest and grapefruit, before becoming slowly acidic and very balanced. The fini...

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Vintage 1998

This year's harvest is the largest the region has ever seen. Every corner of the appellation has managed to achieve the maximum authorized harvest yield of 10,400 kilos of grapes per hectare. Producers were also allowed to harvest an additional 2,600 kg which was allocated to the Champagne reserve, called blocking. This led to 330 million bottles of champagne being made in total. The lock-in system (which allows more production than necessary ...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Comtes, stunning stuff and a good indicator of how well these wines age. Ripeness and a lovely seductive note here. Much more plushness. Crème brulee has morphed into lemon meringue. Waves of stonefruit nestle with a gentle toastiness. Again, excellent length and very fine balance. Showing the benefit of age but be in no rush at all. It has years ahead of it. For me, 98.

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  • 98p
Not even the importer knew that the new vintage was on its way when they found a magnum 98 among their bottles. It is clearly a bit wrong tasting a new vintage in a magnum since the size of the bottle makes the wine even less ready. So far this is a fresh, lemon-crispy package of mineral without the slightest "Comtes" maturity. Store!!! All right, not as sharp any longer, some toastiness started to appear during the spring of 2007, and butterscotch plumpness in the spring of 2008. Nectar in 2015.
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  • 95p

Bright golden colour. Intense toasting reminiscent of brioche and fresh toast, dried apricots and hints of candied lemon peel. Oriental spices in the background. On the palate excellent mousseux, depth and length, very refined fruit and balanced spiciness. A truly great wine. 

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  • 98p

An elegant, flourishing and stylishly creamy nose. The taste begins to open up and the creamy nuances of the Chardonnay suffuse the mouth-feel. There is an excellent acidity for this vintage, which has been blamed for lacking in acids. A feather light and harmonious taste. The wine is becoming enjoyable, but there is no real rush to uncork it.

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  • 93p
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Information

Origin

Reims, Champagne

Vintage Quality

Above Average

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

No Potential

Fake factory

None

Other wines from this producer

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Collection

Comtes de Champagne Rosé

Comtes de Champagne Rosé Vinothèque

Comtes de Champagne Vinothèque

Cuvée Prestige

Demi-Sec

Future version of Comtes de Champagne

Les Folies de la Marquetterie

Nocturne

Nocturne Rosé

Prelude

Vintage

Inside Information

Consistently great but from time to time simply divine, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne has consecutively been an apt contender for the title of the best champagne on the market. All recent vintages have been successful; the intense 1996 being one of the finest of the vintage, the 1998 possessing classic Comtes elegance and the 1999 demonstrating a more softer side of Comtes. But in 2000 Taittinger and its reputed cellar master Loïc Dupont hit jackpot. This warm, overt vintage produced many heavy and overly ripe champagnes, but in Comtes the richness given by the year is bound to a velvet-smooth texture and a fine, fresh acidity that creates an exiting tension one wishes to marvel time and again.

 


Comtes de Champagne possesses a flawless track record all the way down to its inaugural vintage, 1952. It is reputed to be the first prestige cuvée blanc de blancs, if one does not count the then small mono-cru blanc de blancs Salon. Today it rivals for the title of the best blanc de blancs quite level-headedly with Dom Ruinart, Salon and Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires.
Why blanc de blancs then? It was already Pierre Taittinger who believed in Chardonnay. Following his instinct, he created the light and elegant Chardonnay-dominant floral and perfumed style as Taittinger’s trademark. Consistent with this vision, the house’s prestige cuvée was to be a 100 percent Chardonnay whose emphasis is on Avize and Mesnil fruit.

 


The wine is produced in a reductionist style in stainless steel vats but since the 1989 vintage a fraction of the wine has been aged in fairly new oak barrels for four months. This gives a boost to the wine’s creamy texture and enhances its hallmark toasty qualities.
After bottling the wines are transported to the ancient Gallo-Roman chalk cellars of Saint-Niçaise to ferment and mature. The St-Niçaise abbey was destroyed in the French Revolution and much later the Taittingers bought the ruins and built their cellars into these monumental historical surroundings. Today, the underground cellar network at St-Niçaise is used entirely for maturing Comtes de Champagne. The rest of production takes place at the modern winery facilities at Rue de la Justice.
Great champagnes are traditionally named after people. Taittinger makes no exception having chosen to honour the region by naming their prestige cuvée Comtes de Champagne – Counts of Champagne. The origins of the Counts of Champagne lie in the 7th century feudal society. Originally, before the 11th century, the Counts of Troyes had had the ruling but during the time of Thibault II the power shifted to the Champagne County whose Count had his residence in Reims. Thibault II was a mighty man ranking only second to the king. However, it was especially during the times of Thibault IV Champagne flourished. He arranged famous 49-day festivities that brought prosperity to the region. The story of the Champagne Counts came to an end finally when the crown and the Champagne County were unites as Louis X rose to power. Taittinger, still owning the historical Comtes de Champagne residence today, named their prestige cuvée to honour this history.


Complex story but complex is the wine, too. The champagne’s smooth, layered character develops over 10 years’ ageing period in the cellars. This, the wine’s attractive 10 g/l dosage and sufficient post-disgorgement rest make Comtes de Champagne such an attractive champagne already upon release.
We toast to congratulate Taittinger. This house that has recently returned back to family hands, has quickly built a strong spirit with Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger at the helm supported by both of his children Clovis and Vitalie.

By Champagne magazine

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