Taittinger Taittinger Collection by Sebastiao Salgado with Gift Box 2008
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Wine
Spectator -
Wilfred
Wong -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
Made from selected Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes grown in the finest microclimates in Champagne. Chardonnay is harvested from Grand Cru of Côte des Blancs and Pinot Noir comes from Grand Crus of Montagne de Reims and edge of Vallée de la Marne.Following harvest, grapes are pressed immediately in press houses in the vineyards. First pressing is only juice used for this wine. Blending is after primary fermentation, final cuvée completes secondary fermentation in bottle in Taittinger's cool cellars.
About Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil. Growing up in a family of eight children on his parents' farm, he became fascinated by the natural world around him, from taking walks in the forest, looking from the hilltops and listening to the trainsthat transported the local minerals. After studying economics in school, Sebastião decided to change careers and become a photographer, focusing on his love of nature. Sebastião Salgado’s photographs express human and environmental tragedies, and yethe always manages to find extraordinary beauty, thereby offering a glimmer of hope. His work focuses on the biodiversity of the planet, highlighting that which has not been transformed by human beings. The photograph chosen for Taittinger Collection is a statement of what is most universal and original: Life, simple and peaceful.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
An elegant Champagne, with vibrant acidity and a finely detailed mousse, this offer flavors of crème de cassis and poached pear, showing rich accents of smoky, toasted brioche and lemon curd. Offers a lingering, spiced finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Made only in great vintages, the 2008 Taittinger Brut Millésimé offers an excellent combination of fresh fruit and developing maturity. The wine serves up lively green apple and delicate creamy earth in the flavors. The palate's generosity makes it a candidate with lighter meats in cream sauces. Drinking very well now. (Best Served: 2016-2024) (Tasted: August 26, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Taittinger's complexity is apparent here on the nose of this complex, rich and deeply powerful vintage Champagne. Flinty struck match reduction, toasty yeasty notes and bright lemon-infused citrus notes are all bursting from the glass amid savory, chalky minerals. The palate has a bold lemon citrus and peach fruit flavor to it, really saline, minerally and contained. Some glossy brulée-like notes to close. Drink now up to five years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Millésime Brut is a 50/50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a large percentage of Grand Cru and Premier Cru origins. Fresh and subtle on the pure and mineral nose with its sweet cherry aromas, this is a lean, straight, pure and elegant cuvée with mineral complexity, tension and a persistent finish. An exciting mineral and also fruity 2008 that balances the vintage's acidity with a full body.
Champagne Taittinger was established in 1931 by Pierre Taittinger on the foundations of Forest-Forneaux, itself established in 1734 and the third-oldest wine producing house of Champagne. Taittinger is today proprietor of approximately 600 acres of vines among which are included parcels in the one hundred - percent rated villages of Cramant and Avize in the Cote des Blancs; and Bouzy, Mailly, Ambonnay and Verzenay in the Montagne de Reims. The Taittinger Estate is one of the three most extensive in the Champagne district, and the firm's major holdings in Chardonnay vineyards are the physical expression of the Taittinger philosophy and style.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’