The latest release of Taittinger’s NV Brut Prestige Rosé is showing very well, revealing inviting aromas of red berries, plums, orange zest, crisp orchard fruit and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy but incisive, this bottling is based on the Brut Réserve, yet the addition of still red wine—much of which is produced in house—imparts structuring phenolics that complement the wine’s generous core of fruit to great effect. Readers should not that this cuvée’s clear glass makes it vulnerable to light strike, so it’s especially important to buy properly stored bottles.

One of Champagne’s largest houses, Taittinger is also among the region’s largest landholders, with their 288 hectares of vineyards supplying some 40% of their requirements. Since 2006—once again under family control—Taittinger has been going from strength to strength. Vinification is mainly in stainless steel, though around 30% of the maison’s small Folies de la Marquetterie cuvée ferments in foudre, and since 1988, a small proportion—amounting to around 5%—of the vins clairs for Comtes de Champagne spend a few months in wood. The Taittinger style is pure and expressive, emphasizing charming fruit but gaining in tension and taking on a gently reductive edge as one ascends the house hierarchy to the flagship Comtes de Champagne bottlings. Comtes is one of the most reliably age-worthy wines in Champagne, yet it continues to represent terrific value when compared to—frequently inferior—tête de cuvée bottlings from other Grandes Marques. And the eagerly anticipated 2008 vintage, previewed during this tasting with chef des caves Alexandre Ponnavoy, will be worthy of enthusiastic pursuit when it is released sometime within the next 12-18 months. Two others cuvées that fly under the radar are the Folies de la Marquetterie—from parcels Taittinger is farming in pursuit of riper, more concentrated fruit—and the Prélude Grands Crus, a seriously age-worthy Champagne that sometimes gets somewhat lost in the Taittinger range. I’ll be reporting in more depth on this important house in the near future, but for now, all these releases come recommended.