Comtes de Champagne Brut (2013)

About this wine

Comtes de Champagne 2013 is Taittinger’s prestige Blanc de Blancs, made from 100% Chardonnay drawn from the five grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs, so it feels precise and airy right from the first sip. The fruit leans toward lemon, grapefruit, and crisp orchard notes, then opens into brioche, toast, and a gentle almond pastry character that gives it real depth without making it heavy. There is a cool chalky thread running through the wine that keeps everything focused and bright, which is a big part of why this bottling feels so refined. A small portion of the blend sees new oak, just enough to lend a subtle toasted edge, and those barrels are smaller than a standard large cask, which helps shape detail rather than obvious oak flavor. The house created Comtes de Champagne in 1952 in honor of the Counts of Champagne, and the bottle still carries the seal of Thibaud IV, the medieval count tied to one of the estate’s favorite stories about Chardonnay’s distant ancestry. This 2013 shows the house style beautifully, luminous, graceful, and layered, with citrus energy up front and pastry and chalk building quietly underneath.

About the grape

Chardonnay has ancient roots in Burgundy and Champagne where a mutation of an old grape from the eastern Mediterranean led to its spread, and at Taittinger it is used exclusively for the Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs. For the 2013 bottling Taittinger selected only Grand Cru parcels in the Côte des Blancs, principally Avize, Le Mesnil sur Oger, Cramant, Chouilly and Oger, which are prized for their chalk rich soils and east facing slopes. Those chalky soils and low lying coastal plateau give the Chardonnay here a fine mineral backbone, and the house works closely with growers to choose parcel level fruit often from mature vines and parcels that ripened late in 2013, with harvests extending into October. In the cellar the cuvée is kept as a pure expression of Chardonnay from those Grand Cru sites, reflecting careful parcel selection and traditional Champagne viticulture practices such as low yields and meticulous canopy management to preserve balance and finesse.

Quick facts

• 🍋 Comtes de Champagne 2013 is a true blanc de blancs made exclusively from Grand Cru Chardonnay villages like Le Mesnil, Avize and Cramant.
• 🏰 Taittinger created the Comtes cuvée in 1952 and every bottle carries the medieval seal of Thibaud IV, the Comte de Champagne, tying the wine to a poetic crusader legend.
• 🕰️ The 2013 bottling spent unusually long on its lees before disgorgement, giving it extra creaminess and aging potential beyond many non-vintage Champagnes.
• 🌹 A rose variety was commissioned and named 'Comtes de Champagne' as a living tribute to this cuvée, linking the wine to horticultural fame outside the cellar.
• ✨ Only produced in exceptional years, Comtes de Champagne is released as a prestige single-vintage cuvée rather than an annual blend, so each vintage like 2013 tells a distinct story of that harvest.

Palate profile

Producer

Taittinger, one of the few remaining family-owned Champagne houses, traces its origins to 1734 when Jacques Fourneaux founded the original wine business. In 1932, Pierre Taittinger acquired the estate, including the historic Château de la Marquetterie, which became the heart of the family's Champagne production. The house is renowned for its extensive vineyards, covering 288 hectares across 37 different crus, with a notable emphasis on Chardonnay, comprising 37% of their plantings. Taittinger's commitment to quality is evident in their use of the ancient chalk cellars of the former Saint-Nicaise Abbey in Reims for aging their Champagnes, providing ideal conditions for maturation. In 2015, embracing innovation, Taittinger became the first Champagne house to plant vineyards in England, establishing Domaine Evremond in Kent to produce English sparkling wine.