Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rosé 2008

Deep color of bronze with orange-peel and golden hues. Strawberry, earth, bark and orange with peach-pie aromas. Full-bodied and layered with lots of phenolics that give this Champagne and velvety and rich texture. It goes deep down. Open and beautiful. Exotic and flamboyant. So fresh and vivid. Just jumps out of the glass. So much energy. Drink now.

Taittinger's 2008 Brut Comtes de Champagne Rosé, which arrives on the market this year, has unwound considerably since I last tasted it. Offering up inviting aromas of red berries, plums, sweet spices, orange rind and freshly baked bread, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and vinous, with an ample core of fruit, lively acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. As I wrote in 2019, Taittinger is using more Pinot Noir and opting for longer sur lattes maturation for this bottling, and the result is that Comtes Rosé is becoming a more gastronomic Champagne. Deceptively charming as this 2008 is today, I suspect it will tighten up with a little age on cork. 2021-2035