The new release of Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label bottling of non-vintage Brut is approximately a blend of fifty percent pinot noir, twenty percent pinot meunier and thirty percent chardonnay. The wine offers up a bright and precise bouquet of lemon, apple, bread dough, a nice touch of minerality and a topnote of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied and nicely balanced, with a good core, pinpoint bubbles, good backend mineral drive and a long, brisk and focused finish. This is not the most complex non-vintage Brut on the market, but it has moved up dramatically in quality from where it was ten years ago and is a harbinger of even better things to come from this Grand Maison in the not too distant future.

The VC brand ambassador, the NV Brut Yellow Label (an assemblage of 55% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 15% Meunier) is currently based on the 2012 vintage and contains 35% reserve wines. On the nose, ripe and intense (yellow-fleshed) fruit aromas intermix with a very nice maturity from the reserve wines. Disgorged in January 2015 with a dosage of nine grams, this is a medium-bodied, yet round and full-flavored Brut. It possesses biscuit and nutty flavors, and a nice freshness and complexity in the intense, aromatic finish. Indeed, this is very delicate and impressively good. (SR)