With appealing vibrant lemon cream and peach custard on the nose, chardonnay is really working its magic here. The palate has attractive grilled peach and lemon curd flavors, as well as grapefruit. Terrific smooth texture and a refreshing, lightly toasty finish. Superb drinking now.

The understated nose is presently quite discreet though not completely inexpressive with its array of floral, brioche, Meyer lemon and plenty of yeast influence. The clean and very crisp medium weight flavors possess excellent punch thanks to the very firm and relatively fine supporting mousse, all wrapped in a markedly dry but not really austere finale. This is a wine of refinement yet it doesn't lack for verve and even power though it does need some bottle age to better develop the level of overall depth.

The 2012 Taittinger Brut Millésimé is composed of an unspecified blend of chardonnay and pinot noir (both the maison’s website and the technical sheets supplied with my samples fail to breakdown the percentages of the two grapes). The wine offers up a fine bouquet of apple, white peach, chalky soil tones, warm bread and a touch of upper register smokiness. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and still very young, with a fine core, elegant mousse, brisk acids and fine backend mineral drive on the long, primary and promising finish. This has just been released and is still a puppy, but with some bottle age, it should prove to be an excellent vintage chéz Taittinger. (Drink between 2020-2050)