1996 Pol Roger Brut Vintage

1996 Pol Roger Brut Vintage has impressive concentration with berries to taste.

Pol Roger founded his Champagne house in 1849 and it is still proudly independent, under family control. It owns 88 hectares of vineyards on prime sites in the Vallée d'Epernay and on the Côte des Blancs. Its cellars run for 7km and are on three levels, the deepest known as the 'cave de prise de mousse' at 33m below street level. As the name suggests this is where the wine undergoes its secondary fermentation in bottle. The fact that this deep cellar is at 9o or less, rather than a normal cellar temperature of 11-12o, prolongs this fermentation and contributes to the quality and particular style of the wines and their famously fine bubbles.

Vintage Champagne is produced only when all the necessary components of climate, grape quality and ripeness at harvest come together for the winemaker to produce a wine of optimum intensity, structure and balance which will carry the distinctive character of the year. In general Vintage Champagnes are more intense and better suited to longer keeping than other styles and are particularly suited to accompanying food.

The 1996 Pol Roger Brut is yellow gold in colour. It has an understated hazelnut nose with some good yeasty complexity and an impressive concentration. Sweet berry structure overlayed with biscuit character. With serious grip, huge length and very tight acidity, this Champagne is very fine.