This feels a little more evolved than you might expect, aromas of crusty bread, honey, oatmeal, walnut and toasted seeds coming to the fore. It's extremely pleasing to sip and savour, because the mousse is soft and giving. Notes of sweet clementine appear, as well as a nip of tangy grapefruit, and the finish is layered with a crust of flaky salt. Lip smacking and delectable. (NE)

The 2012 vintage of La Grande Dame is composed from a pinot noir-rich cépages of fully ninety percent pinot noir and only ten percent chardonnay. The pinot came from such fine Grand Cru villages as Aÿ, Bouzy, Ambonnay, Verzenay and Verzy. The chardonnay’s pedigree is equally impressive, hailing from the villages of Mesnil-sur-Oger and Avize. The wine was finished with a dosage of six grams per liter this year. It offers up a superb bouquet of apple, white peach, fresh-baked bread, chalky minerality, hazelnut, dried flowers and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with superb mineral undertow, fine focus and grip, refined mousse, bright acids and a long, complex and superbly balanced finish. This is tasty today, but has decades of life ahead of it and is still in climbing mode, so I might be inclined to let it enjoy another decade in the cellar and really let the wine blossom into its peak level of maturity. Fine, fine juice. (Drink between 2023-2065)

The 2012 La Grande Dame Brut, a blend of 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay with 6 g/L dosage, has a very pale lemon-straw color. It slides out with vibrant lime leaves, grapefruit, and green apple scents, followed by touches of brine and coriander seed, plus a waft of chopped almonds. The palate delivers compelling tension and a fine mousse with impressively pure citrus-flavored layers and a long chalky finish. Approachable yet still quite restrained and youthful, it should easily cellar and gain richness over the next 20 years+. (LPB)