Prestige Cuvée Champagnes are the most refined expressions of a House’s savoir-faire (know-how).
Not only are they generally made from the best fruits, often from Grand Cru or Premier Cru vineyards, but they are also aged for longer, frequently in oak, and elaborated from the best vintages.
Many Prestige Cuvées are extremely famous and command high prices, simply because they are rare, and because making them and aging them for many years is costly.
To find the best Prestige Cuvées Champagnes (or should I say simply the best wines from Champagne? As that’s what they are) and the ones you should buy, we’ve asked all the most famous Champagne houses (wineries) to submit their best wines and give it their best shot at Social Vignerons AWARDS.
If you’re wondering why some of the most famous names in Champagne aren’t represented here, it is simply because they do not even bother responding to messages left on their website or social media channels! Some brands are too exclusive to talk to normal people, so let’s not bother about their wines here 😉
Find all the wines’ tasting notes and ratings further below on this very page. Wine tasting videos and detailed reviews for each wine are available via each wine’s review page, click through to view them 🙂
The Best Prestige Cuvée Champagne Wines: Awarded Wines
The Best Value Prestige Cuvée Champagnes: best buying recommendations
Yes! Even the Prestige Cuvee Category has gens that will make you feel you’ve got your money better spent and make the friends you will share your bubbles with happier, if not impressed.
Here are the relatively affordable ones I’ve been most impressed with:
I know! This is our Silver medal and I’ve already talked about it with positive words. Let’s add that for the price, and for the thought-after 2000 vintage, you will get unmatchable complexity and depth. That’s if you do enjoy some bouquet from a few years of aging. I haven’t tried other vintages of this wine, so recommending this one specifically here 🙂
This Champagne wine shines with passion, like its name suggest. ‘My craft’ would be a good translation of Mon Ouvrage, and this Champagne does make you feel the positive intend and the careful attention that seems to have gone into its making. Perhaps because it is not as famous as some of the other Prestige Cuvee it comes at a reasonable price. But depth, complexity and refinement it has, and enjoyment it provides.
This is probably the most affordable wine in this lineup. Yet, if you value a new experience in a wine tasting, and character in a wine, this Moutard made from 6 different traditional grape varieties of Champagne while everyone else uses only 3 at most, has got to be unbeatable in enjoyment/price ratio. Full of an affirmed personality with some bitters and saltiness complementing the refined (but more conventional) fruit and leesy tones, it surprises and excites the open minds with a unique expression and a great story.
The Prestige Cuvée I Also Enjoyed: Personal Recommendation
My scoring aims at reflecting the absolute quality, complexity, and depth of the wines I taste, and their relative quality on the grand scheme of a 100-point scale I have pasted many years of tasting some of the best wines in the world on.
It doesn’t always show the pure enjoyment and the amount of hedonistic pleasure I have had tasting some of the wines. This is why I like to write detailed reviews on this site, and why I love to highlight the following cuvee, so you too can experience the sophistication they display:
Such a complete Champagne, luscious full of ripe fruit characters, but also rich in nuttiness and sweet spices complexity. An outstanding wine, well worth discovering if you’re not familiar with Philipponnat and their top cuvees already. Many rage about how precise and good all the house’s wines are, and this is nothing to contradict them.
The rank of 2008 Belle Époque in this lineup does not well reflect the sheer enjoyment I have had at tasting it. So mush freshness and floral characters give it a truly unique expression among its peers here it is well worth mentioning. “Utterly balanced and well rounded, it’s an ode to primary fruit characters, minerality and discrete leesy tones” I did write about it!
It was actually the second time I have had the privilege to taste this limited edition XII (12) Cuvee (find the first review here), but I have been just equally impressed as the first time by the depth and the extremely long and layered finish of this wine, rediscovered in the winery’s cellar almost by chance 12 years after its bottling.
An absolute complete wine with the highest level of refinement. It superbly combines ripe fruit characters, with balance and depth of flavors in an utterly smooth experience. This 2004 vintage lives up to Pol Roger Prestige Cuvée’s reputation.
Also find the Best Champagne Wines in other Categories:
Of course, the above selections do not mean you that you won’t find absolutely brilliant wines amongst the others. We are talking here about the finest wines from Champagne, some of the very best sparkling wines in the world, so obviously: they are all gems or close!
Prestige Cuvées Champagne AWARDS in Video
Browse all the wines and their tasting notes to below to find which one is right for you:
1995 Champagne Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires Brut : Nearing Perfection !
Score: 97+/100
Retails around $200 or 130€.
Tasting Notes
This vintage prestige cuvée Champagne comes in a very bright and shiny lemon-yellow color for a 20-year-old baby. Just a few golden hues simply make it look shinier and more luxurious. The first nose simply stuns by its sheer intensity. It also charms by its elegant complexity, and more importantly depth. It’s leesy and mineral, yet at agitating the glass, it reveals that fresh floral characters live in this ocean of powerful secondary and tertiary characters: brioche, walnut, fine oak, vanilla. There is so much going on… Distinctive licorice aromas, as well as some white truffle puts the complexity in here apart, giving it a unique personality. The palate follows along the height of quality and refinement. Great mineral balance, round body and silky bubbles. It’s dry and mineral but feels smooth. The sheer concentration of flavors is stunning, so is the length. Layers of very intense leesy characters, are joined by definite oaky tones. The whole feels warmed by the ripe citrus fruit notes, and rich spiciness made of clove, white pepper. Acacia honey, vanilla, coconut, macadamia nut. So much going on! A wine reaching the highest points of complexity, elegance, power, refinement and length. What else needs saying!
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2000 Champagne Boizel Joyau de France Brut : Sensational & Outstanding !
Score: 96/100
The tasted bottle was disgorged in February 2016. It is a blend of 65% Pinot Noir with 35% Chardonnay grapes from Premier and Grand Cru vineyards. Retails around $120 or 90€.
Tasting Notes
This vintage Prestige cuvée by Boizel comes in an intense gold color with delicate amber hues betraying the wine’s 16+ years of age. The nose also displays the complexity and depth of a mature wine. There is so much intensity and so much going on it’s mind blowing. Dominant notes are those of confit orange and grapefruit peel, truffle, walnut and caramelized cookie. It smells ripe and luscious, with an outstanding complexity and depth of aromas. The palate is powerfully rich and exuberant, stuffed with ripe citrus fruit notes, as well as tropical ones: dried pineapple and juicy mango. Sweet spices, brioche, cream, lime and many more flavors dance joyfully on your taste buds. The texture is very smooth and extremely well balanced. Crisp acidity provides happy freshness. Outstandingly long and layered finish combines the lusciousness of fruit characters with layers and layers of notes of bouquet: oak, vanilla, truffle, forest flour, and more. A sensational wine that from an outstanding vintage that highlights how well matured Champagne performs when it’s well made, combining the benefits of time and experience with the freshness and balance of a great blend.
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2002 Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart Brut: Outstanding & Delightful!
Score: 96/100
Retails around $200 or 135€.
Tasting Notes
This vintage Champagne comes in a bright lemon-yellow color, medium intensity with some gold hues. The nose is introvert, dominated by brioche and some sweet spices characters, nutmeg leading. Some flinty minerality and a touch of earthiness to it make it rather complex and intriguing. Delicate oaky tones of vanilla and caramel bring a hint of pleasing sweetness to the aromas. The revelation comes on the palate, the great balanced dry acidity drives an incredible tension and composure all along the experience. Smooth texture with super-fine silky bubbles round up a delightful mineral feel. While the aromas were a bit shy on the nose, the flavors are extrovert bringing powerful oaky tones as well and roasted nuts, sweet spices, creaminess until a very long layered finish. A Champagne sparkling wine with extreme composure, stunning minerality, great elegance, and powerfully complex and layered flavor profile for an outstanding experience. It is 14 years old already, but will continue to go up the scale of depth and quality for a very long time, certainly reaching a point close to perfection at its peak.
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2006 Champagne Philipponnat 1522 Grand Cru Brut: Powerful Elegance & Complexity!
Score: 95+/100
This 2006 vintage Prestige Cuvée was bottled in July 2007 and the tasted bottle was disgorged in November 2015.
This is a blend of Grand Cru vineyards grapes: 35% Chardonnay with 65% Pinot Noir, most which coming from Philipponnat’s historic Léon site in Ay, Champagne. Retails around $100 or 65€.
Tasting Notes
This Champagne sparkling wine comes with an intense yellow color rich in golden hues. Its nose is equally intense, filled with sweet spices, rich nuts, and buttery toasted biscuit characters. Complex and refined nose dominated by secondary aromas. As soon as you put it in your mouth, the wine strikes by its flavor intensity. Explosive nuts, walnut notes burst on the palate, mixed with lifted sweet spices (nutmeg and clove). The luscious ripe citrus fruit, lemon marmalade and juicy grapefruit comes after but hits hard by its richness. Notes of evolution, truffle and a subtle earthiness complete the profile adding plenty of depth. Stunning composure and balance on the palate, in a dry mineral style. Long and layered, and more importantly very powerful, almost warming finish. A stunningly complex, composed, and complete wine, that encompasses all the quality we love about Prestige Cuvée Champagnes: rich powerful secondary characters combined with luscious fruit; the whole displayed with powerful elegance and finesse.
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2004 Champagne Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Brut: Superbly Refined & Complex!
Score:95+/100
Retails around $230 or 160€.
Tasting Notes
This vintage Prestige cuvée made as a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill’s taste for Pol Roger wines, comes in a shiny lemon color with plenty of gold hues. The nose is a little introvert and closed at first, mainly nutty and briochy. Yet you can smell it’s layered and complex. The palate strikes by its smoothness. Such an oily texture and fine foamy bubbles with a relatively mild acidity. It tastes dry but with an impression of warm sweet lusciousness from confit lemon flavors. The great balance reveals many layers of secondary and tertiary flavors: walnut, yeast, brioche, wax, sweet spices and many more. The finish is even more telling about the concentration and refinement of this wine: extremely long and layered filled with citrus liqueur, peppery notes, smoke, roasted nuts, and the list goes on and on. A Champagne with extreme concentration and balance, that has acquired immense depth and length with aging on its lees. Its warming fruitiness, leesiness and minerality delight with a superbly refined and complex palate.
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Champagne Louis de Sacy Edition Limitée XII Brut : Complex & Layered !
Score: 95/100
This sparkling wine from Champagne, France has spent the last 12 years maturing on its lees in Magnum bottles (1.5L).
In 2004, Louis de Sacy run what was at the time an experiment. They selected some of their absolute best wines (55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay), blended them together and made a special bottling of 1002 Magnums.
This experimental wine was literally forgotten for 12 years until recently when they find out this cuvée had evolved superbly…
Tasting Notes
This XII cuvée comes a mature golden color of medium intensity. The nose is powerfully nutty, fragrant and elegant. Brioche, biscuits, walnut, confit lemon peel and honeysuckle marry with great finesse in a refined mature aromatic profile. The palate strikes with its great balance, great acidity perfectly matched by good body, oily texture and discrete fine bubbles. It feels crisp yet rounded. The flavors are per the nose, rather intense, complex and layered profile combing ripe citrus fruit, subtle floral touches with deep leesy nutty and creamy characters. The absolute revelation though lies in the finish. While you already think you had a great wine and a great experience reaching towards the end of the mid-palate, is when you get a retro-olfactive kick of powerful and complex spicy notes of evolution. Layers of caramel, honey, gingerbread biscuits, lemon essence and more literally invade the back of your palate for minutes from the end of the tasting. Incredibly complex and layered. So utterly enjoyable!
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2008 Champagne Perrier-Jouet Belle Époque Brut: Wonderfully Promising!
Score: 95/100
Retails around $120 or 110€.
Tasting Notes
This vintage Prestige cuvée comes in an elegant yellow color of medium intensity, on the bright shiny side. The nose also firsts appears bright, fresh and floral. Paddock flowers, fresh zesty lemon coated in a delicate brioche character together with a sea breeze minerality. Fine, pleasing and tempting from such delicate aromas. The palate follows along with so much freshness, finesse and refinement. It’s superbly floral with orange blossom flavors and driven by a crisp mineral acidity maintaining the zesty feel. Great mineral balance between the acidity, discrete sugars, oily texture and very fine bubbles. A splendid cuvée all in elegance and refinement. Very fresh and floral, mirroring the flower image on the label. It actually smells and tastes like you’re walking among those beautiful white flowers in a misty morning. Utterly balanced and well rounded, it’s an ode to primary fruit characters, minerality and discrete leesy tones that are just here the perfect the whole. This should also age and develop wonderfully giving birth to an even more stunning wine. A 2008 Belle-Epoque to enjoy now for its freshness and balance, and watch bloom into what should be a nearly perfect Champagne in the coming decade.
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2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs : Intense & Mineral !
Score: 95/100
This Prestige vintage cuvée by Taittinger is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes from the famous Côte des Blancs area of the Champagne region. Retails around $150 or 110€.
Tasting Notes
The color is a medium-intensity yellow, with loads of gold hues giving it a distinctive shiny appearance. The nose strikes by its aromatic intensity, filled with dominant notes of biscuits and gently roasted hazelnut. It’s pleasant and appealing. Primary characters are discrete, with just hints of subtle lemon and floral tones. Flavors in the mouth though, aren’t shy by any mean. It’s an explosion of intense leesy biscuit, and brioche notes bursting on your palate. It’s frantic, yet utterly controlled by a great balance. Dry overall, some clearly perceptible sweetness reinforces the lusciousness of the wine’s mouthfeel. Lemon marmalade flavors, that come with their salivating bitterness are a standout feature. It’s also packed full of sweet spices and lifted peppery notes making for a complex layered experience. Long finish on honey and acacia, slightly vegetal and bitter which here is a positive thing adding personality and savory feel to the finish after so much lusciousness. A stunning example of composed and complex Champagne Blanc de Blancs Prestige cuvée. A wine to experience…
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Champagne Lallier Mon Ouvrage Grand Cru Extra-Brut : Cloud Finesse !
Score: 95/100
This Grand Cru Cuvée is a blend of 30% Chardonnay with 70% Pinot Noir. It was aged in bottle on its lees under natural cork rather than under a more conventional nowadays steel cap for 5 years. It comes with an extra-brut dosage. Retails around $95 or 50€.
Tasting Notes
With an intense lemon-yellow color and light golden hues, the nose is intense and complex, dominated by biscuits and walnut notes. There is a luscious citrus peel background, mellowed in honey and delicate buttery notes. The whole smells like a succulent lemon and honey buttery crepe. Complex and layered to smell. More importantly: tempting! While the nose is filled with rich nutty and honey, slightly oxidative richness, the palate surprises massively by its freshness and finesse. Flavor-wise, it’s a world of fresh citrus and acacia wood, like a citrus orchard when it’s blooming. It’s dry but so smooth it feels just fine. Texture-wise, it is so utterly well balanced and lightened up by frothy super-fine bubbles, that it feels like a cloud on the palate. Like an extra delicate lemon and walnut mousse. A Champagne wine that stuns by its finesse and utter balance, still having heaps of layers and a long finish. Outstanding!
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Champagne Amazone de Palmer & Co Brut: Intense & Spicy!
Score: 94+/100
This is a Non-Vintage cuvée. Retails around $125 or 60€.
Tasting Notes
This Prestige cuvée by Palmer & Co comes in a rather intense gold color, bright and shiny. The aromatic profile displays very intense notes of roasted nuts and intense brown honey or light caramel. Some confit lime peel scents provide a warming ripe fruit element, while intense spiciness, clove and white pepper intensifies the whole nose. Deep, powerful, and layered smell you could spend minutes unveiling and exploring. The palate surprises with the freshness of its feel: concentrated acidity freshens up the sensation and make for lively experience. Dry and driven by an acidity perfectly matched by very discrete sugars and a rather full body. Luscious lemon marmalade marries intense spices. Plenty of complex oaky and spicy tones: clove again with nutmeg. It’s a warming, yet fresh and refined lemon-scented Christmas pudding cake, with vanilla and oaky richness on top. Add to the pictures a few layers of evolution that provide great depth and enjoyable savory touch and umami touches: truffle and forest floor most probably given by the older wines in the blend. A delightful complex, powerful flavored sparkling wine showing great composure thanks to an excellent balance between freshness and richness. A rather oaky style of Prestige cuvée, but that let the ripe fruit and minerality shine through.
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Champagne Cattier Clos du Moulin Domaine Premier Cru Brut : Smooth & Vibrant!
Score: 94/100
This is a Non-Vintage cuvée
This Prestige Cuvée by Cattier is a single vineyard wine blended from 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir from the Clos du Moulin Premier Cru site in the Montagne de Reims area of Champagne.
The tasted bottle was numbered 257 and blended from 2006, 2007, and 2008 vintages. Retails around $130 or 75€.
Tasting Notes
This wine comes in an elegant, vibrantly bright lemon-yellow color, betraying no sign of the wine’s relatively mature age. The nose is vibrant and fresh too. Distinctive mineral notes of iodine and sea breeze lift up fresh lemon tones and subtle oaky aromas. A discrete and fine nose. The palate feels extremely light and vibrant too. Not that it’s a light wine, it is concentrated in acidity, oily texture and very fine bubbles. But the absolute balance give it an utterly smooth finesse. Fresh flavors of lime and grapefruit, with some peppery spices make for a fresh zesty sensation. Long petrol notes to the finish marry very well integrated oaky tones accentuating the wine’s smooth feel. A flawless wine with perfect composure and balance, combining vibrant fresh fruit characters with finesse and elegance of a great prestigious Champagne blend.
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2008 Champagne Moutard Père & Fils Cuvée des 6 Cépages : a Wine to Experience !
Score: 93/100
The tasted bottle was disgorged on 4 October 2016. 18904 flasks of this wine were bottled on 9 July 2009.
Unlike most Champagne wines that are now blends of a maximum of 3 grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier), this 6 Cépages Cuvée includes 3 traditional, rather rare grapes from the old days in Champagne: Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Pinot Blanc. It represents a lost tradition in Champagne where a greater variety of grapes was used. Retails around $55 or 40€.
Tasting Notes
The color is of a bright yellow, with a good intensity. The nose is elegant, but gorgeously nutty. Subtle notes of brioche argue with biscuits, ripe lemon and apricot jam notes, all perfectly leveled and letting each other speak to your senses. The palate feels dry with a distinct powerful nuttiness as per the nose. Well-rounded and balanced with a creamy texture than matches the dryness and acidity well. The unique feature in this wine is an elegant bitterness combined with a subtle saltiness. Solid flavor intensity dominated by nuts, spices, green apple (an oxidative edge) and an enjoyable vegetal character of freshly cut wood. A sparkling wine with a big heart and personality, displaying unique features in a great dry, mineral, and refined balance. A wine to experience…
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2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé Brut : Unique & Intense !
Score: 93/100
This Prestige Cuvée rosé by Taittinger is a blend of Chardonnay wines from the Grand Cru vineyards sites of the Côte de Blancs with Pinot Noirs, 15% of which are vinified as a red wine. Retails around $210 or 140€.
Tasting Notes
The process of blending red wine with white wine gives this Comtes de Champagne a distinctive intense salmon pink color, with marked orange hues. The nose is equally intense, filled with rather savory notes of cherry liqueur and roasted nuts. There is an intense curry-like and pepper-lifted spiciness to it as well, providing solid powerful tones. Strawberry, honey, and sweet spices complete the picture of a complex elegant nose displaying a good balance of secondary characters and fresh red-fruit primary notes. Palate is crisp and dry, though some sugars are perceptible that seem to underline the wine’s fruitiness: sour cherry and strawberry flavors shine through. Plenty of savoriness too with walnut notes and plenty of Christmas pudding spices. Opulent mid-palate leaves place to a phenolic subtle drying finish that ends the wine on a salivating salty impression. Long layered finish too flavor-wise. A very complex and packed-full with intensity of a sparkling rosé wine that delights and surprises with new flavors that seems to pop out of the wine every quarter second renewing the pleasure of the experience. A wine to experience.
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2009 Champagne Joseph Desruets ‘Sous les Clos’ Premier Cru Brut : Apple & Mango !
Score: 92+/100
This is a vintage cuvée blended from 2009 grapes: 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, and 20% Pinot Meunier. Retails around $60 or 40€.
Tasting Notes
This Champagne has a rather intense yellow color with gold hues. The nose also displays some great aromatic intensity dominate by notes of ripe apple, mango and a hint of walnut. It’s filled with luscious ripe fruit characters with an oxidative edge. The palate is gorgeously mineral, dry but with a very elegant smoothness, coating body and delicate bubbles. Very solid and enjoyable balance with a salty feel, the flavors also have a complex both fruity and nutty oxidative edge. A few elegant phenolics to the finish. A very complex and extremely well balanced wine filled with personality, minerality and ripe apple and mango characters in a dry and controlled elegant style.
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Devaux Cuvée Ultra D Extra Brut : Dry Champagne for Gastronomy !
Score: 92+/100
This is a Non-Vintage Cuvée blended from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from various vintages, the youngest of which is at least 5 years old. One of the 2 top cuvées by Devaux, the other being a Brut, the Cuvée D (find review here). Retails around $50 or 35€.
Tasting Notes
This Champagne comes in a bright lemon-yellow color, medium intensity. The nose is fresh, quite introvert and elegant, on delicate nutty notes, and a touch of fresh lemon. Layered and complex to smell. The palate feels dry with great mineral acidity. Balanced mid-palate with solid body and good oily texture, fine bubbles. A powerful finish on subtle vegetal bitterness underlines the fresh lime tones in the wine and give the end of the tasting an elegant phenolic bitter finish that cries for food. Flavors are fresh, citrusy, and vibrant well complemented by some lees and brioche with a touch of enjoyable salty minerality. A wine for gastronomy that will absolutely delight paired with the finest foods and dishes as the distinctive truffle scents in the wine suggest.
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Champagne Cattier Clos du Moulin Rosé Premier Cru Brut : Fine & Mineral !
Score: 92/100
This Non-Vintage Prestige Cuvée Rosé sparkling wine by Cattier is a single vineyard wine blended from 40% Chardonnay and 60% Pinot Noir from the Clos du Moulin Premier Cru site in the Montagne de Reims area of Champagne. Retails around $100 or 80€.
The tasted bottle was numbered 625 and blended from 2006, 2007, and 2008 vintages.
Tasting Notes
This rosé comes in a slightly pale delicate salmon pink color, with elegant orange hues. The nose is savory rather than having the upfront fruity tones we perhaps expected from a pink bubbly. Flinty characters are dominant giving the aromatic profile a strong minerality. Fresh acidic strawberry and fresh lemon notes. A touch of spicy grassiness. The palate though displays riper fruit characters of ripe raspberry and strawberry, together with luscious sweet orange peel tones. Great balance on the acidity and a dry feel. Fine bubbles, slightly grassy and savory finish with a salivating bitterness. A connoisseur rosé all about finesse, acidity and refinement meant to be paired with gastronomy and delicate dishes.
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Champagne Devaux Cuvée D Brut : Fresh & Mineral !
Score: 92/100
This is a Non-Vintage Cuvée blended from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from various vintages, the youngest of which is at least 5 years old. One of the 2 top cuvees by Devaux, the other being an Extra-Brut, the Ultra D (find review here). Retails around $60 or 40€.
Tasting Notes
This Champagne comes in a bright lemon-yellow color, medium intensity. The nose is fresh and citrusy, with a distinct mineral iodine character. Medium intensity but very elegant and layered. The palate feels dry overall, but some sugars are perceptible balancing the good acidity well. Fine oily texture and bubbles, marry a crisp citrusy acidity. Gorgeously rich flavors of ripe orange and orange blossom meet delicate nuttiness and leesiness. Long and layered finish on honey-like characters with delicate bitterness and subtle phenolics for a savory edge. A complex and layered Champagne wine with great balance, and many facets of flavors, from fruit to secondary tones, rounded in a great acidic freshness and interesting textural effects.
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