Wine Advisor
Pol Roger, Brut Vintage 2012
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Pol Roger's 2012 Brut Vintage continues to show very well indeed, offering up inviting aromas of citrus oil, crisp yellow orchard fruit, peach, smoke, and fresh bread. Medium to full-bodied, layered and complete, it's deep and fleshy, with excellent concentration, racy acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse. I purchased this wine for my own cellar in magnum, and I can't wait to open them a decade from now.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Disgorged in October 2018, the 2012 Brut Vintage offers up aromas of smoky peach, apples, pastry cream, white flowers and mandarin. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, broad and powerful, with more volume and amplitude than its blanc de blancs counterpart, revealing racy balancing acids, an already refined mousse and the impressive concentration that typifies this low-yielding vintage. It's a classic blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay that saw seven grams per liter dosage.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 Brut Vintage is radiant and super-expressive from the get-go. Apricot, pastry, baked apple and buttery notes wrap around the palate effortlessly. Soft and caressing, with tons of immediacy, the 2012 is quite showy today. More importantly, it is delicious and also very easy to like.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 Brut Vintage is an attractive, open-knit Champagne that captures the richness and ripeness of the year nicely. Baked apple, wild flowers, mint and brioche give this tasty, inviting Champagne much of its is immediacy and overall appeal, I would prefer to drink it over the next handful of years. Disgorged: February, 2019.
About the Producer
Located in the town of Epernay in the Champagne region, Pol Roger Champagne was founded in 1849 by Pol Roger, a Champagne man from Aix-en-Provence. Over the next 50 years, Pol Roger built the estate into one of the most respected in Champagne and established it as a solid trading cornerstone in the UK. After his death, the estate passed into the hands of his sons Maurice and Georges. The two brothers had their own specialities, Maurice being very open to the public and Georges preferring to stay in the blending room and tasting room, and it was in their hands that the Champagne de la Vignoble continued to flourish. The Champagnes are now made from 55 hectares of vineyards, mostly in or around Epernay. Made from grapes grown in 18 vineyards in the Epernay region, it is a rich, deep, full-bodied wine with the vibrancy and finesse that characterise the best Champagnes. Its Reserve Champagnes can last 30 years or more, longer than the best French red wines. Another of the estate's outstanding Champagnes is the Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs, which is also one of the world's finest white in white Champagnes, made from only Chardonnay from the best vineyards in the Cramant, Le Mesnil, Oger and Avize regions. The Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs is perhaps the estate's sexiest and most glamorous, ready to drink at a young age and with less ageing capacity than the Reserve and the famous Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Champagne. Today, after a century and a half of development, traditional and modern elements can be found in all aspects of the vinification process at Château Paulus. The most direct manifestation of this modernity is in the fermentation plant, with its neat and shiny stainless steel fermenting tanks, hinting at a departure from the days of first fermentation and storage in wooden barrels. It was around the 1930s that the estate decided to move away from barrel fermentation and started using concrete tanks for fermentation and later stainless steel fermenters. This modern equipment allowed for better temperature control during fermentation and clarification, resulting in a cleaner, more consistent and better quality fermented wine. Château Paulot was one of the first champagne houses to make this change.
