Pol Roger NV Brut

The Brut Vintage Champagne is one of Champagne’s greatest wines, and is certainly a contender for ‘wine of the vintage’ in many years.

It is a blend of 40% Chardonnay and 60% Pinot Noir, the only relatively recent exception being the 1966, which had 65% Pinot Noir, although some vintages from the first half of the 20th Century were up to 80% Pinot, and the 1928 was, exceptionally, 100% Chardonnay.

The persistent high quality of the Brut Vintage is down to the combined efforts of the Pol-Roger family, with increasing input from Hubert de Billy, together with chef de caves James Coffinet, who was replaced in 1999 by Dominique Petit, who came to Pol Roger from Krug.

It has a pale, straw coloured hue, with a sparse but moderately fat bead which corresponds with the wine’s youthfulness. The nose is similarly adolescent, showing a little bready-yeasty character, but also with the characteristics of Pinot Noir which in a young wine gives, as it does here, lots of fresh apples and notes of biscuit.