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Moët & Chandon Vintage 2000 Posted: Saturday, December 01, 2007
By Bruce Sanderson
Tradition and wine often go hand in hand. Messing with more than 250 years of tradition can be
tricky, especially when you have the No. 1–selling Champagne brand in the United States.
Don't tell Benoit Gouez. As chef de cave for Moët & Chandon, the young winemaker's fresh ideas
are propelling the venerable Champagne house (founded in 1743) into the twenty-first century.
The 36-year-old joined the company in 1998, and from 2001 until 2005 assisted Richard Geoffroy
on the Dom Pérignon team. In 2005, he became chef de cave for the Moët brands. With the blessing
of management, Gouez has been rationalizing the range of cuvées and tweaking a few things.
With the release of two new vintage wines, Gouez and Moët have taken a bolder step. In blending
the Brut Grand Vintage 2000 and Brut Rosé Grand Vintage 2000, Gouez made a stylistic shift. Rather
than conform to a house style for consistency, as in the nonvintage cuvées, or interpret the
character of the vintage, he was given free rein to choose the most interesting base wines to
create the new vintage bottlings.
"Throughout the 1980s and '90s, the vintage [cuvée] was influenced by the Moët & Chandon style,
a super Brut Impérial, if you will," explains Gouez. "I think we were looking for consistency, but
maybe we missed some options available to us."
He also decided to extend the maturation on the lees from five to six years, looking for more
mature flavors in the wine on release. And the vintage cuvée has a new name and label.
The results of my blind tastings were impressive. The Brut Grand Vintage 2000 (92 points, $60),
a blend of 50 percent Chardonnay, 34 percent Pinot Noir and 16 percent Pinot Meunier, shows
assertive aromas of gingerbread, graphite and vanilla. Overall, it's a complex, elegant
Champagne.
The Brut Rosé Grand Vintage 2000 (90 points, $75), 41 percent Pinot Noir, 39 percent Chardonnay
and 20 percent Pinot Meunier, has 22 percent still red wine added. Rich and ripe, it offers dried
berry and citrus flavors, a rich texture and fine length. It has a long cherry-tinged aftertaste
and a chalklike sensation.
"My vision is that the vintage [cuvée] makes an impression, whether you like it or not," says
Gouez. They certainly make an impression. And I think you will like the new direction Moët is
taking.
Visit www.moet.com.
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