A Little About This Blog...
Everyone should be able to appreciate champagne - which is why I set up this blog.
It's more than a diary of my personal champagne journey - of learning, understanding and appreciating. It's a way of sharing my love for this magnificent cuvée in an easy to understand way so that others may be inspired (regardless of how much they know about wine) to delve deeper into their champagne experiences.
So that readers get the most out of sharing my experiences, I have provided links to further reading and other information to support the learning journey.
I hope you too are inspired and enjoy your journey as much as I do mine.
Moët and Chandon Grand Vintage Rosé 2002 serves as a good example of rosé champagne that has benefited from a fine harvest. 2002 is considered to be the best harvest since the famous 1996 harvest that produced consistently good quality grapes (primarily showing excellent balance of sugar and acidity).
For Moët and Chandon’s heralded 2002 grand vintage, it benefited from a relatively warm winter followed by a warm, dry spring with no persisting problems from frost. Despite significant storms around harvesting time in September, the grapes quickly dried off which produced healthy grapes. The warmer, drier weather allowed grapes to ripen beautifully – that is, the rate and timing of sugar levels rising as acidity levels fell was close to perfect, producing grapes with good alcohol level potential (around 10.5% and - according to Moët - is the highest since 1990) which would eventually result in great structural harmony. This particularly affects chardonnay, a very sensitive grape, as the warmer climate produced different characteristics to other vintages; resulting in more developed, riper fruit flavours.
