Taittinger Champagne Artist Collection Corneille

Autumn ripe fruits, apricots, brioche. Notably ripe in color. 92

Moderately effervescent and saturated golden color. Still very crisp and nicely honeyed but short of butterscotch and surprisingly not overly toasty, as described elsewhere. Best served on the colder side.

Our guess is this is based on the 1990 Comtes de Champagne. Deep golden in the glass. Unbelievable nose of toast with honey, roasted almonds, yeast and maple syrup. Still has fine perlage (good storage) with small, persistent bubbles and a palate of hazelnut, caramelised apple with an incredibly long finish of roasted nuts, lemon curd and salted caramel. Drinking beautifully now and definitely has the structure to last a while longer yet. Superb.

Beautiful ripe champagne with still good backbone of acids. Butsm toast, peach. I was positive surprised.

CDV Intéressant bien qu'il ait sans doute passé son pic, il deployait une belle complexité, entre pomme, pot pourri et epices douces. Doté d'une bulle fine, il etait plus convaincant en bouche, avec des notes pâtissières, pomme tatin, bonbon, pralin, évoquant un vieux chardonnay bourguignon du côté de Chassagne/Puligny (finale minérale). Avec l'aeration, il allait vers l'ecorce d'orange et les fruits secs.

Corked

1989 Burg dinner at Jade Palace. Deep orange hues, this was unfortunately very advanced in appearance (and this followed through to the nose and palate as well). There were some fine bubbles, but they disappeared quickly. Sherry nose, oxidative notes - lots of nuts, caramel and mushrooms. There was still a decent amount of acidity on the palate. Drunk cold, this might have passed as decent, but when the wine warmed in the glass, it appeared tired and very mature. …

We believe the wine is the same as the 1990 Comtes de Champagne. Beautiful bottle for a celebration. The wine is quite evolve (the colour just shows this) and much like other 1990s (Dom Perignon comes to mind) its more of a wine than a champagne. Still quite rich, well evolved, well round very yeasty, ripe apple feel. Healthy and alive but not energetic or vibrant. This and much of its 1990 peers in our view are to be drunk …

Welcome Home Peter! (Park Palace, Grand Park Hotel) : Very nice - this was drinking near peak. It had a nicely matured nose, showing mellow honeyed tones and warm scents of brown pears, apples and herbs laced with floral and mineral accents. Nice. The palate still had a certain freshness to it, along with a nice creamy mousse, but it was also clearly mellowed with age, with more of honeyed tones picked up on the nose wed to Chinese pear …

Dinner with Aldo Vacca : Sadly, corked. Seemed to have very good underlying material.

Winespecials Wine Evening (Villa im Park / Kirchheim) : Glass: Champagne flute Color: amber, almost no perlage Nose: sherry notes

Lovely, rich and unctuous, soft and smooth, a delightful aperitif champagne. Showing the early stages of maturity, drunk at the peak?

Deep gold yet with plenty of acid. maybe five years away from being a great pinot noir dominant champagne.