Comtes Blanc de Blancs 2013

Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs is Taittinger's prestige cuvée and one of the benchmark Blanc de Blancs Champagnes on the market. It is made exclusively from Chardonnay sourced from Grand Cru vineyards, using only first-press (cuvée) juice, and is produced only in years the house judges strong enough to merit a vintage release rather than every year.

The wine is aged for more than a decade in the Taittinger family's Gallo-Roman chalk quarries beneath the former Abbey of Saint-Nicaise in Reims before disgorgement and release, a long élevage that builds the cuvée's characteristic fine mousse, mineral drive and slow-developing complexity.

The house style at Taittinger leans toward elegance and finesse over power, with a notably high proportion of Chardonnay across its range compared to many other Grande Marque houses, and Comtes de Champagne is the fullest expression of that Chardonnay-led identity.

The cuvée takes its name, and the medieval seal on its label, from Thibaut IV, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre in the 13th century, tied to a legend that he brought a new grape variety back from the Crusades believed to be an ancestor of Chardonnay.