Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2007

This is a step up from the linear and fresh 2006. It shows subtle depth and power with a dense block of vivid fruit that's highlighted with lemon zest, green apples and hints of white peaches. Just the right amount of praline and nuts on the nose. Fine and tight bead give the Champagne a luxurious mouthfeel. One for now or the cellar. Drink or hold.

The 2007 Comtes de Champagne is just starting to open aromatically, making it a very fine choice for drinking now. Hints of apricot, dried flowers, candied ginger, spice, chamomile, marzipan, brioche and lightly honeyed notes fill out the layers. There's gorgeous textural density and presence to match its generous personality. Soft contours wrap it all together in style. What a delight.

The 2007 Comtes de Champagne is an astonishing Champagne. With aromas of dried flowers, chamomile and plenty of freshness, the bouquet is complex and dense. The fine and pure texture on the palate is supported by a chalk and iodine finish.

Born of a long yet cold and damp growing season that yielded many wines from grapes harvested at the threshold of ripeness, the 2007 Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is a considerable success and has evolved little since I last tasted it a few years ago. Disgorged in 2017 with a dosage of nine grams per liter, it reveals a bouquet of pear, mocha and dried flowers mingled with cacao nib, and there's a touch of smoky reduction that is more overt in this rendition than in the 2012–2014 trio. On the palate, it is medium-bodied, elegant and taut, with a crystalline core of fruit, pinpoint mousse, incisive acids and a precise, long, chalky finish. Less demonstrative than both the 2006 and 2012 editions, this is a middleweight, more lightly structured Comtes—one that may stir a certain nostalgia for the Comtes of bygone years.