NOCTURNE “CITY LIGHTS”
A blend of more than 35 different crus from a number of harvests, this wine spends 4 years on the lees before being disgorged. A 18 g/l dosage of cane sugar combined with the slow cellar aging creates a round, mellow, smooth Champagne that is perfect to enjoy with a dessert or late in the evening.
Tasting Note
This distinctively sweet “sec” Champagne (with 18 g/l residual sugar) is pale yellow in color with shimmering highlights and bubbles that form a delicate ring of proper foam. On the nose you will find aromas of white flowers, yellow peach and dried apricots. The palate is smooth and creamy yet very crisp and gives way to flavors of raisins and fruit in syrup. This mature, rich and round wine culminates inside a long, smooth finish.
Food Pairing
Nocturne is the best accompaniment to fruit desserts or lightly sweet pastry or cakes as well as rich p^atés with toasted brioche.
PRESTIGE ROS'E
This elegant and racy cuvée is crafted with superb Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit harvested from Montagne de Reims and Les Riceys. A lot of the grapes are pressed in vineyard press houses. At the winery the must undergoes a cool-temperature fermentation. 85% from the blend is vinified as white wine and the remainder is vinified as red wine. The delicate color and intense vibrancy around the palate is obtained by adding a small proportion of still red Pinot Noir from Ambonnay, Bouzy and des Riceys. The ultimate cuvée is blended from a comprehensive selection of a minimum of 15 diverse crus, and usually more, of the Champagne region as well as young reserve wines that express the blend’s fresh, lively Pinot fruit. After second fermentation in the bottle, the wine spends three years around the lees in the bottle to develop complexity and bouquet.
Tasting Note
This cuvée is a vibrant pink color with fine bubbles and chronic foam. The full and wonderfully expressive nose delivers aromas of crushed raspberries, cherries and black currants that lead into crisp, fresh red fruit flavors around the palate. Velvety and full-bodied, this wines are lively, fruity and fresh.
Food Pairing
A subtle accompaniment to fruit desserts, including fruit tart or fruit salad.
COLLECTION SERIES: SALGADO 2008
Salgado is produced from selected Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes grown in vineyards in several of the highest quality microclimates from the Champagne region. It is produced only in vintage years when the harvest yields fruit of excellence comparable to Taittinger's rigorous standards of quality. The Chardonnay grapes are harvested in the Grands Crus from the C^ote des Blancs and also the Pinot Noir comes from the Grands Crus of Montagne de Reims and the fringe of Vallée de la Marne. Following harvest, the grapes are pressed immediately in press houses located one of the vineyards, yielding an initial pressing which is the only juice used for this wine. In the winery, fermentation takes place under temperature-controlled conditions. Blending occurs following the primary fermentation, and thereafter the final cuvée undergoes the secondary fermentation in the bottle in Taittinger's cool cellars. Aged for five years on the lees, the wine acquires complexity and also the fine, pinpoint bubbles characteristic of its sparkle.
Harvest Note
Following a mild, rainy winter, without any particularly cold periods, an overcast spring began with a few very localized frosts. While there is some flower abortion and uneven grape size, especially in the Chardonnays in mid-June, the summer season, with relatively little sunshine, was not overly troubled by the usual vineyard diseases. The harvests officially going on 12th September however, many waited a couple of days to star t picking, which paid dividends in terms of ripeness. The elements was pleasantly cool and dry throughout the picking period, resulting in a fine, very healthy harvest. The Chardonnays are refined and vigorous, with good minerality. The Pinot Noirs are fruity and vinous, with finishes that are still lively. The 2008 wines stand out for his or her remarkable freshness and vivacity. The acidity is very firm and well-integrated, suggesting a good possibility to age.
Tasting Note
The 2008 vintage has produced wines seen as a freshness and vivacity, having a perfectly integrated acidity that suggests they'll age very well. Intense and mineral, the nose combines floral and citrus notes (lemon and grapefruit). Around the palate, fruit, vinosity and richness predominate.
Food Pairing
Makes a perfect aperitif and it is a flexible pairing having a wide variety of foods such as seafood and shellfish, lamb and veal, risottos and white sauces.
COLLECTION SERIES: ROY LICHTENSTEIN
The Taittinger Collection Series was conceived within the late 1970s by Claude Taittinger. Long a patron of the arts, having a passionate interest in the modern schools of painting and sculpture, he perceived an all natural alliance between your development of the artist and also the art from the great winemaker. Thus, in 1983, Champagne Taittinger introduced the very first of its revolutionary Collection Series, uniting art and Champagne within the style of a unique bottle with a laser-sealed sheath that visually expresses the artist's idea of the special moment of Champagne. Featuring the work of artists like the French surrealist André Masson, American pop artist Robert Rauschenberg, and more recently the renowned Senegalese painter Amadou Sow, these exquisite bottles are commissioned well into the 21st century, and can perpetuate Champagne Taittinger's affiliation with the greatest artists of our time.
The Taittinger Collection Series bottles are freed only in great vintages, from the selection of the year’s finest cuvées. The wines are made from Chardonnay mainly in the Grands Crus of the C^ote des Blancs, and Pinot Noir from Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne vineyards. The fruit is pressed within the vineyards and the first pressing is transported to the winery for fermentation, accompanied by a second fermentation in the bottle. Aged for five or more years on the lees, your wine acquires complexity and also the fine, pinpoint bubbles sign of its sparkle.
COLLECTION SERIES: VASARELY 1978
The first bottle design in the Taittinger Collection Series, for the 1978 vintage, was commissioned from Victor Vasarely
(1906 -1997), the Hungarian French Op Art (or Optical Art) master whose visual experiments informed the aesthetics of our digital age. Op art would be a movement beginning in 1964 that involved mathematically precise optical illusions that usually appear to be moving.
The Taittinger Collection Series bottles are freed only in great vintages from a selection of the year’s finest cuvées.
