The great 2012 vintage shows well in this rich, full Champagne. Dominated as usual by Pinot Noir, the wine is powerfully ripe and impressively full of white fruits and tight minerality. Ready to drink from 2022, it is worthy of aging and certainly drinkable even in 10 years time. Roger Voss

Intense aromas of strawberry and subtle apple with pie crust and some ash and stone. An almost smoky undertone to the aromas. Full-bodied and very layered with ultra fine tannins that give it a rough-cut, velvety texture. It’s very flavorful, yet so checked and reserved at the same time. Compact, tight palate that is deep and powerful. Very vinous at the end and in the mouth feel. Spicy and biscuity at the finish. Mostly pinot noir with chardonnay and only grand cru. More density and complexity than the 2008. Seven years on the lees. Delicious and luxurious to drink now, but giving this some age will make it even better.

Sleek, with racy acidity, this tightly-meshed version nonetheless offers a lovely range of flavors, with ripe black cherry and currant fruit and accents of pomegranate, candied kumquat and raw almond. Finely detailed, creamily swaths the palate in silk-like texture, carrying the expanding flavor profile through to a graphite- and spice-laced, lasting finish. AN

Pol Roger's newly released 2012 Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill is showing brilliantly, bursting from the glass with youthful aromas of honeyed pears, toasted brioche, pomelo, fresh pastry, green apple and mandarin orange, with hints of stone fruit emerging with time in the glass. Full-bodied, vinous and textural, with an enveloping core of fleshy, concentrated fruit, bright acids and an elegant pinpoint mousse, it concludes with a long, penetrating finish. More muscular and vibrant than the generous and charming 2009, the 2012 ranks alongside the 2008 and 2002 as one of the three finest renditions of Sir Winston Churchill this millennium—and in style it resembles a hypothetical blend of those two vintages. WK

Pol Roger's flagship Brut Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill is fabulous in 2012. Rich, open-knit and seductive, the 2012 will drink well right out of the gate, although it certainly has the pedigree to age well for decades. Lemon confit, chamomile, dried flowers, mint, spice and a kick of brioche infuse the 2012 with notable textural richness and resonance. Time in the glass brings out gorgeous aromatic lift to round things out. The 2012 is classy and polished all the way.

Medium-deep lemon-gold colour. Soft and overt nose of spicy, yeasty complexity meeting a lovely charred gunpowdery whiff. Crisp pristine fruitiness of ripe yellow apple, baked pear, candied lemon and vanilla, developing tropical nuances. The palate echoes the 2012 vintage’s hallmark vivacity, but is mellow, round and textured, as Winston ought to be. There is instant charm and drinkability to this well-built wine that finishes with a refreshing chalky-mineral bite. A fine Sir Winston vintage.

A deep lemon gold colour, a decorous and persistent bead and then an enticing aromatic of orchard fruit, yeast, spice and crystallised lemon, behind that the softly beguiling lure of magnificently self- assured Pinot Noir. More immediately attractive than illustrious forebears such as 2002 and 2008, the wine is already encyclopedic in scope, vanilla pod and a lick of sour honey brightly predictive, with more ascetic, chalky, pithy notes underwriting the rigours of today’s structure. A wine of great dignity, authority and bearing; remind you of anyone? Dosage 7g/L. Disgorged July 2020. Drinking Window 2022 - 2035
Tasted by Simon Field MW (at Winchester, 01 Mar 2021)
Part of First taste: Champagne Pol Roger, Sir Winston Churchill 2012

Admirably modest bottle weight and packaging for a de luxe champagne. Bravo, Pol Roger! (It might not win a prize for the design but it's not an extra burden on the planet.) All grand cru fruit and, most unusually, all hand-riddled. 'The must undergoes two débourbages (settlings), one at the press house immediately after pressing and the second, a débourbage à froid, in stainless steel tanks at 6 °C over a 24-hour period. A slow, cool fermentation with the temperature kept under 18 °C takes place in stainless steel with each variety and each village kept separate. The wine undergoes a full malolactic fermentation prior to final blending. Secondary fermentation takes place in bottle at 9 °C in the deepest Pol Roger cellars (33 metres below street level) where the wine is kept until it undergoes remuage (riddling) by hand, a rarity in Champagne.'
Rather open on the nose – a surprise! Looser textured than some and still decidedly embryonic. It does open out rather remarkably on the finish, suggesting that it is very much a long-distance runner. I think I would wait until at least 2022 to take full advantage of that interplay of flavours underneath, where it is positively throbbing! Drink 2022 – 2032
JR - March 2021