Is 27 Year Old Champagne Still Good?
tldr: I bought a bottle of 1996 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin 'La Grande Dame' this week and it tasted great while reminding me of something important.
Last week, I celebrated my birthday and decided to mark the occasion, as per usual, with the purchase of a special bottle of wine. This year I stumbled upon a bottle of 1996 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin ‘La Grande Dame’ that I decided I couldn’t live without.1 Typically, this wouldn’t be a wine I feel particularly drawn to, but after picking up Tilar Mazzeo’s book The Widow Clicquot I fell infatuated with the details of the Veuve (widow in French) Clicquot’s life story. I had no expectations for this bottle and quite honestly had no idea what to expect because I’d never tasted La Grande Dame nor had I tasted any Champagne with over a quarter century of bottle age. According to experts, vintage Champagne if kept properly will peak around 5-10 years after release, so to say I was pushing my luck on this 27 year old bottle would be an understatement. Alas, I figured it was now or never for this epic birth year bottle.
La Grande Dame is the Prestige Cuvee of the house of Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and a nod to the so-called Mother of Champagne. Translation: It’s the best blend, of the best wines, from the best vineyards, made only the best years by one of the most powerful Champagne houses in history. This is the pinnacle for house (not grower) Champagne. For comparison, Dom Perignon, Cristal, and Krug Grande Cuvée are other members of this category and are timeless symbols of excellence in Champagne. Veuve Clicquot is widely known as America’s favorite Champagne, but a more interesting story of a renegade female entrepreneur lies behind the iconic yellow label.
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot was widowed at 27, inheriting the fledgling wine business of her husband’s that they dreamed of building together. Without missing a beat, she grew the business into one of the most prolific Champagne houses in history through wartime, bad weather, and changing tastes. She was a child of the French Revolution who grew into a woman who, under Napoleonic rule, stepped outside of the norm and became one of the first great female entrepreneurs. Beyond the label that bears her name, Barbe-Nicole can be credited with the invention of remuage (aka riddling), a careful and labor intensive process still used today to collect and remove sediment produced in the sparkling winemaking process to guarantee crystal clear bubbly.
There is something special about experiencing a wine that was born the same year as you. In appreciating how its bright flavors and harsh edges have softened and developed in complexity over time, you can’t help but start to see and appreciate those same qualities in yourself. The lead up to popping this bottle shared a similar uncertainty to getting dressed up for the first time after having a baby. Will my jeans fit? Will the wine still bubble? Poof! As soon as the cork popped and the white curl of gas appeared at the top of the heavy bottle, I was at ease and then very excited. A mix of feelings similar to putting on my pre-pregnancy jeans and looking in the mirror to find I “still got it”. Phew.
The color of the wine in the glass was striking, honey gold and reflecting light like an old cut diamond. A soft foam formed while pouring but quickly dissipated like when waves roll to shore. Observing the wine in my glass before I took the first sip something was missing, the Champagne’s signature bubbles rising to the surface. Regret quickly crept close until the wine met my lips and whoooosh the finest bubbles I have ever tasted engulfed my entire mouth. Smaller bubbles are casually associated with higher quality wines, but it’s not that black and white. Smaller bubbles indicate older age in sparkling wine. “Bubbles are finer in wines which feature less dissolved CO², and CO² decreases slightly as the wine ages.”2 Higher quality sparkling wine, for example vintage Champagne, spends more time aging in the winery before release than most entry level sparkling wines, thus the correlation between quality and bubble size.
Ripe yellow apple. Coconut flesh. Acacia. Caramel.
This wine is a love letter to Pinot Noir postmarked through the years from the Veuve Clicquot herself. In 1818, she was the first to blend Pinot Noir into her Champagnes, creating the very first true rosé Champagne.3 Although not a rosé, the heavy lusciousness of this wine, compounded by its age, made it very clear that the blend was mainly Pinot Noir. The friend who I was sharing the bottle with, who notoriously dislikes blanc de noir, was pleasantly surprised and appreciated the style in this bottle. My husband claimed, “it was a bit too rich for me” and that’s fair. About a glass and a half was more than enough to satisfy, like a dessert wine except there was no sweetness to the juice.
This wine feels like a hidden gem among the other names of the prestige cuveé category and I plan on trying more recent vintages now that I am in the know. It was a delightful surprise and the perfect accoutrement to an otherwise typical Monday night in December. The power of a bottle of wine to turn an ordinary moment into one that I’ll remember for a long time is the gift that keeps on giving. Enjoying this bottle while cozy at home, watching my kids play in the basement, with a bag of Better Made chips breathed gratitude back into my body during a stressful season of work and mothering babies. What a blessing it is to be alive.
So, to answer the question “is 27 year old Champagne still good?”, I give an overwhelming yes. Which to me means, despite our society’s glorification of youth as our peak, another year under my belt may only signal a refinement is still underway, transforming me into the softest, most complex and beautiful version of myself.
Like always, thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.
I bought this bottle from Wine Consigners and was pleasantly surprised by the incredible customer service. It was my first time buying from them and Hannah sent photos and videos of my bottle to ensure authenticity and expedited my shipping to guarentee I would have the bottle on time. I wouldn’t hesitate to order from her shop over and over again (and I most definitely will be).
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/when-it-comes-to-champagne-bubbles-does-size-matter-20221114-p5by34.html
https://westgarthwines.com/blogs/news/raise-a-glass-to-barbe-nicole-clicquot
Another fabulous read! I had no idea about the history of Veuve Clicuot, or the meaning of "Veuve". A great tidbit to know!