Champagne vintages

Question 1

2002?

Answer 1

great all around year, producing classic wines

Question 2

2004?

Answer 2

a year of great, taut, linear Chardonnay. Drawing comparisons with ‘02, Cassidy Dart, sales manager for Pol Roger UK, says 2004 offers “excellent quality in a more tight knit, slightly austere style”.

Question 3

2006?

Answer 3

aromatic; a touch soft and early developing

Question 4

2008?

Answer 4

intense and powerful; brooding and ageworthy. Orford-Williams describes it as “exciting and potentially better than anything since 2002”.

Bookended by bright, dry conditions in spring and September, the middle of the growing season saw cool conditions prevail to produce a high quality crop with plenty of acidity.

Question 5

2009?

Answer 5

rich and ripe; easy drinking. rich and ripe; easy drinking. Early feedback drew comparisons with years like 1982 or 1989, while Pinot Noir in particular shone.
Philipponnat described the harvest as “the healthiest I’ve seen in my lifetime”, but whether it can emerge from the superstar shadow of 2008, only time will tell.

Question 6

2011?

Answer 6

The cool conditions that characterised 2011 were interspersed with unhelpful heat spikes, rain at just the wrong moments and localised hail storms. This in turn led to uneven ripening, difficult picking decisions and very mixed results across the region

Question 7

2010

Answer 7

After two consecutive vintages that were relatively easy to manage, the end of the decade presented Champagne with more testing conditions.

Early concerns about drought were washed away when over two months worth of rain fell in three days during August, causing fruit to swell rapidly and fears of rot, especially for Pinot Noir.

Question 8

2007?

Answer 8

A mild winter saw early flowering, followed by the cloudiest summer on record. Producers faced uneven ripeness and rot, which contributed to a mixed picture of quality.

Question 9

2005

Answer 9

Not much vintage wine made.

Question 10

2003?

Answer 10

Too hot, leading to low acidity. Few vintage wines produced. “We never considered releasing the 2003 as a vintage,” says James Simpson MW of Pol Roger. “There was simply not enough acidity for it to be a great Pol vintage for the medium, let alone long, term.”

Question 11

2002?

Answer 11

Described by Andrew Hawes of Mentzendorff as “the vintage of a generation”, 2002 has been widely released and today its high quality reputation looks assured.

Question 12

2001?

Answer 12

A cold, wet growing season is summed up as “dire” by Marcel Orford-Williams of The Wine Society.