2012 Pol Roger Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne

Disgorged in March 2017, the 2012 Brut Blanc de Blancs is excellent, delivering a complex bouquet of warm pastry, dried white flowers, lemon oil and some smoky, gently reductive top notes. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with a rich but precise core of fruit that reveals all the concentration of the vintage but is elegantly rendered, underpinned by tangy acids and concluding with a precise, chalky finish. Drink 2020-2040. (WK)

Concentrated, toasty and virile, the 2012 Pol Roger Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne reminds me quite a bit of the 2002 with its more powerful personality, and the pain grille bouquet is bound to thrill Champagne fans that like this style. It comes from a harvest that was a real miracle; after a miserable spring and early summer, a golden autumn saved the crop. Yields were quite low because of problems at flowering, but almost everyone in the region made a bit of vintage because of the great quality. It is still the only harvest that I have ever heard the growers excited about- they really thought it was all bound for the distillery in July, and when nature gave them a miracle, they celebrated it. We had this wine with sushi, and it worked very well, but I wrote in my notes that it would be even better with white fish with sauce- or just as the aperitif.