A truly wonderful wine from the start. As usual, they succeed particularly well in warm, acid-weak vintages, when the neighbors' wines often appears flat and publicly simplistic. Despite the fact that the acid is not particularly accentuated here either, the vineyards aromatic citrus fresh touch, manage to leave a fresh uplifting side to the creamy fat smoothness. The finish is certainly chalky and elegant, but it raises to heavenly heights with a 76-like butterscotch soft, warm, sweet flavored embracing pillow. Magnum is still undeveloped and crispy.

–champagneclub.com, Richard Juhlin

The 2005 Champagne Blanc de Blancs Comtes De Champagne is a deep, rich, full-bodied beauty that packs serious amounts of fruit and texture, while never seeming heavy or rustic. Loaded with notions of orchards fruits, toast, caramelized citrus and distinct minerality, it has a broad, expansive, yet fine mousse, beautiful mid-palate depth and a great, great finish. It’s well worth seeking out.

A warm, sunny year produced this concentrated, elegant wine with refined aromas of ripe apple and quince, fresh hawthorn and a suggestion of mineral and toast. Supple and velvety in texture, it lacks nothing in substance or power to age for decades. The grapes are exclusively from vines in Avize, Le Mesnil, Oger, and Chouilly. A bit softer than the 2004 vintage, it is still a wine to seek out and should age well over at least the next decade.

The Taittinger 2005 Brut Comtes de Champagne leads with a maritime aromatic amalgam of salinity and alkalinity, behind which emerge candied grapefruit rind and white peach, all anticipating the flavors that dominate on a strikingly succulent and mouth-filling yet buoyant palate. Candied ginger, marzipan, and fresh lime add to the zesty invigoration of a finish whose pronouncedly marine character serves to open my salivary glands’ floodgates. As with their other cuvees, buoyancy is here allied to a judicious and supportive hint of sweetness. This ought to be worth following for several years, though on no account should it be overlooked in its present condition. Imported by Kobrand, Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7700

The 2005 Comtes de Champagne has a beautifully composed nose that is extremely cool, mineral and precise and attracts with highly elegant and discreet bright and fresh fruit aromas (white apples, lemons, grapefruits) along with chalk and hazelnut flavors and nougat. Full-bodied, lovely, pure and quite complex on the palate, this is a fresh, buoyant and firmly structured Comtesse with a persistent minerality and an impressive clarity and freshness. It is quite reduced at the moment and lacks, perhaps, complexity but there is a touch of sweetness and a good chance for further development.

Nutty, broad and intense – an absolute powerhouse, yet it has fragrance and perfume too. Classic blanc de blanc style with good ageing potential – keep it if you can! (RH)