2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 750 ml

Taittinger’s 2006 Comtes is near perfect, with a gorgeous balance of elegance and richness. An incredibly pure and ethereal nose of yellow citrus, wildflowers, vanilla blossoms with biscuity and hazelnut complexity, the palate is creamy with concentration, yet so refreshing with such great textural finesse through to the incredibly long finish. One of the best young Tête de Cuvée Champagnes and the best vintage of Comtes we have tasted. Be sure to drink it from a standard wine glass, never a flute, so as to appreciate its layers of complexity.   

Comtes has always overperformed. Little wonder; Taittinger is the epitome of small but perfectly formed family-owned Champagne houses. Tasting this wine with our friend, wine writer Jonathan Cristaldi, he mentioned something that Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger had shared with him during a visit of the cellars: "My own cellar is rarely full because a happy cellar is an empty cellar. I believe in sharing and enjoying all that our vineyards give us now, in this lifetime." For all of us, that encapsulates the spirit of the house and this wine. Comtes was one of the first prestige cuvées, first produced in 1952. It is made exclusively from Chardonnay from six Grand Cru sites in the Côte de Blancs. Along with Salon and Krug’s Clos de Mesnil it is the finest of all the Blanc de Blancs Champagnes.

The critics are equally wrapped with this vintage of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne. We particularly related to Tyson Stelzer’s review in Decanter, where he awarded it 97 points, saying, “The 2006 brings back all the wonder of classic Comtes: the innocence of a joyful childhood, a free-as-air dash through endless blue daylight and a breathless plunge into an icy mountain rock pool. A wine of coiled energy, focus, precision and minerality that bores to the very core of the finest chalk fields of the Côte des Blancs.”