Veuve Clicquot Vintage Brut 2012 750ml

FRANCE : CHAMPAGNE

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier

MED-BODIED, MIRABELLE TART, CANDIED CITRUS, ROASTED PEAR, GREEN HAZELNUT, OAK

Veuve Clicquot has declared only 66 vintages since Madame Clicquot invented the category in 1810, and 2012 nearly didn't make the list. Spring brought rain 60% above average, then frost, then hailstorms that damaged more than a thousand hectares across Champagne. August turned everything around with sustained heat and a clean, dry September, and the small surviving crop came in concentrated and ripe.

Pinot Noir leads at 51%, all from Grand and Premier Cru sites in the Montagne de Reims and the Vallee de la Marne, with Chardonnay at 34% and Meunier at 15%. Eleven percent of the blend was aged in large oak foudres, which is where the fig, mocha and light vanilla come from without the wine ever tasting woody.

Dosage is 8 g/l, generous by current Brut standards and deliberately so. Jasper Morris noted the wine went quiet around 2022 and is only now emerging with toasty development, so this is a good moment to open one. James Suckling 94 pts. Wine & Spirits 94 pts.

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