We have some perfect bottles of 2005 Taittinger, which are drinking very well right now and are quite a bit cheaper than the current release as well. Comtes de Champagne has always been one of the top Tete de Cuvees from the Grand Marques Houses and remains slightly undervalued compared to its peers. 2005 is an overlooked year for Champagne at this point, but it was an excellent vintage and saw an equal amount of warm and cool weather that translated to some high-quality fruit perfect for Champagne, with Taittinger making one of the best examples of the vintage, especially when pricing is factored into the equation. Comtes is made with 100% Chardonnay from the Grand Cru villages of the Côte des Blancs region, including Avize, Cramant, Chouilly, and Mesnil-sur-Oger, which all have some of the best soils for growing Chardonnay. 2005 needed a bit of time in the bottle to come into its own, and now it is showing very well and is an excellent example of Taittinger at nearly 20 years of age.
John Gilman 95+ points! "The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a stunning young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and youthfully complex, as it offers up a very classy blend of pear, delicious apple, fresh almond, incipient notes of crème patissière, chalky minerality, brioche and just a whisper of vanillin oak in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and rock solid at the core, with exquisite balance, refined mousse, crisp acids and simply superb length and grip on the seamless, youthful and oh, so promising finish. The style of the 2005 vintage gives this some early accessibility that was not evident with the more tightly-knit 2004 out of the blocks, but this wine has the structure to also age long and very, very gracefully. It has been a year since I last tasted this wine and it has started to show more precision to go along with its early generosity and is a classic in the making. My gut feeling today is that it will be superior to the 1989 version, to which I compared it to a year ago. Brilliant wine. (Drink between 2015 - 2045)"
Decanter (Charles Curtis) 95 pts! "A warm, sunny year produced this concentrated, elegant wine with refined aromas of ripe apple and quince, fresh hawthorn and a suggestion of mineral and toast. Supple and velvety in texture, it lacks nothing in substance or power to age for decades. The grapes are exclusively from vines in Avize, Le Mesnil, Oger, and Chouilly. A bit softer than the 2004 vintage, it is still a wine to seek out and should age well over at least the next decade. (Drink between 2022 - 2035)"
Jeb Dunnuck 95 pts! "The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a deep, rich, full-bodied beauty that packs serious amounts of fruit and texture, while never seeming heavy or rustic. Loaded with notions of orchards fruits, toast, caramelized citrus and distinct minerality, it has a broad, expansive, yet fine mousse, beautiful mid-palate depth and a great, great finish. It’s well worth seeking out. (Drink between 2017 - 2032)"
2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
2005 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
We have some perfect bottles of 2005 Taittinger, which are drinking very well right now and are quite a bit cheaper than the current release as well. Comtes de Champagne has always been one of the top Tete de Cuvees from the Grand Marques Houses and remains slightly undervalued compared to its peers. 2005 is an overlooked year for Champagne at this point, but it was an excellent vintage and saw an equal amount of warm and cool weather that translated to some high-quality fruit perfect for Champagne, with Taittinger making one of the best examples of the vintage, especially when pricing is factored into the equation. Comtes is made with 100% Chardonnay from the Grand Cru villages of the Côte des Blancs region, including Avize, Cramant, Chouilly, and Mesnil-sur-Oger, which all have some of the best soils for growing Chardonnay. 2005 needed a bit of time in the bottle to come into its own, and now it is showing very well and is an excellent example of Taittinger at nearly 20 years of age.
John Gilman 95+ points! "The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a stunning young wine. The bouquet is deep, pure and youthfully complex, as it offers up a very classy blend of pear, delicious apple, fresh almond, incipient notes of crème patissière, chalky minerality, brioche and just a whisper of vanillin oak in the upper register. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and rock solid at the core, with exquisite balance, refined mousse, crisp acids and simply superb length and grip on the seamless, youthful and oh, so promising finish. The style of the 2005 vintage gives this some early accessibility that was not evident with the more tightly-knit 2004 out of the blocks, but this wine has the structure to also age long and very, very gracefully. It has been a year since I last tasted this wine and it has started to show more precision to go along with its early generosity and is a classic in the making. My gut feeling today is that it will be superior to the 1989 version, to which I compared it to a year ago. Brilliant wine. (Drink between 2015 - 2045)"
Decanter (Charles Curtis) 95 pts! "A warm, sunny year produced this concentrated, elegant wine with refined aromas of ripe apple and quince, fresh hawthorn and a suggestion of mineral and toast. Supple and velvety in texture, it lacks nothing in substance or power to age for decades. The grapes are exclusively from vines in Avize, Le Mesnil, Oger, and Chouilly. A bit softer than the 2004 vintage, it is still a wine to seek out and should age well over at least the next decade. (Drink between 2022 - 2035)"
Jeb Dunnuck 95 pts! "The 2005 Comtes de Champagne is a deep, rich, full-bodied beauty that packs serious amounts of fruit and texture, while never seeming heavy or rustic. Loaded with notions of orchards fruits, toast, caramelized citrus and distinct minerality, it has a broad, expansive, yet fine mousse, beautiful mid-palate depth and a great, great finish. It’s well worth seeking out. (Drink between 2017 - 2032)"
