We started with a sensational 2002 Taittinger Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne. My word, this is exquisite, representing everything I adore in champagne. Limpid gold in hue, it has a compelling bouquet of walnut, smoke, dried honey and shucked oyster shells that I found utterly entrancing. The palate does not disappoint, displaying an irresistible rounded texture and perfectly pitched acidity that cuts through the flavors of lemon curd, orange pith and crushed stone. It was as if this champagne tries to give you everything you desire, and does it with such aplomb that you cannot help but be smitten. I have no doubt that it will cruise at a high altitude for many years. (NM)

In contrast to the still youthful 2004 Comtes de Champagne, the 2002 vintage of this wine is now fully into its apogee at age twenty and is drinking with spectacular generosity today. The bouquet is wide open, complex, vibrant and compelling, delivering scents of pear, tangerine, fresh-baked bread, a refined base of chalky soil tones, sweet almond and plenty of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with a great core of fruit, lovely mineral undertow, elegant mousse and a perfectly balanced, long and precise finish. I have loved this vintage of Comtes de Champagne since its initial release and it is now drinking at its peak, albeit still with decades of life ahead of it!

Though very dumb when tasted soon after disgorgement, just three months later you could already taste the grandeur and concentration. There were just 35,000 bottles made in this vintage, 100,000 fewer than normal, so there will be fighting over these dense, lime-scented beauties when the wine finally awakens. (RJ)