The flavor of tar in wine

Claude took over Champagne Taittinger, which was founded by his father Pierre Taittinger in 1932, in 1960 following the death of his brother, François. He served first as managing director and then president of the company until 2005. During his tenure, he grew Champagne Taittinger from a niche label into a brand with international scale. Moreover, as one of the pioneers of the broader Champagne category’s international success during the 20th century, Claude has been credited with taking France ...

Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...

The Champagne 2022 harvest has begun and picking start dates have been set for the majority of villages, the Comité Champagne has announced. Individual harvest start dates are set for each village and grape variety in the entire Champagne region. This year, dates range between 20 August (Montgueux in the Côte des Blancs) and 6 September (Dormans Soilly in the Vallée de la Marne). The Réseau Matu, a network of hundreds of vineyard control plots, is used to observe the ripening of grapes across th ...