Thanks to Luc for sharing this thought-provoking bottle & to Xiao P for nice photo!

Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs 2002 Champagne (750ml)

Tasted in early Feb, 2015

Served upon popping the cork. 

Penetrating, savory scents of saline & earthy minerality first greet the nose, followed by just hints of toast & caramel, then soon overwhelmed by pervasive tertiary aromas of mushrooms (especially lentinus edodes).

Oily & vinous palate, boasting all the evolved unctuousness & voluptuousness (golden and even dark fruits) from this brilliantly ripe vintage. Yet there remains an electrifying spine of raciness & youthful greenness to keep the whole vibrant, lifted & poised.

With aeration, it unfolds more layered complexity and attains more harmony. The interwoven aromas of mushrooms, dusty mineral & earthy lemon curd are all wrapped up in an oily gown -- this is the oiliness from evolved Chardonnay, which has nothing to do with oak. And the flavor of racy chalkiness is cushioned by an oily & rounded texture.

Impressive as such, I feel something is missing, something is unfulfilled. Something shall be there to bridge the evolved voluptuousness and the still youthful raciness. I believe the missing part is the reduced DOSAGE. Comtes Blanc was famous for its quite high dosage, which might feel a little bit cloying when just released, but never failed to evolve into enchanting perfume of sweet pastry, toast, honey & vanilla as well as exotic fruitiness (thanks to Maillard reaction for which adequate dosage(sugar) is indispensible). I can’t tell exactly which vintage is the dividing line, but a bottle of Comtes Blanc 97 tasted several years ago had such racy expressiveness when newly released that I was sure it already had reduced dosage for a drier style… Well, such change to a drier style obviously aims at expressiveness upon release, but sadly this is at the expense of post disgorgement mellowing! I hate to say that with such reduced dosage regime, new release of Comtes Blanc would be better to be consumed young, rather than cellared…