Veuve Clicquot Prestige Cuvee Champagne ‘La Grande Dame’ Makes Stronger Commitment To Pinot Noir

There is a long debate over which Champagne house created the famous bubbles of Champagne wine but there is just as interesting of a debate over who invented rosé Champagne. Some documentation suggests that despite the fact that the Ruinart Champagne house officially sold the first rosé Champagne bottles in 1764, it was the extraordinary widow who ran Veuve Clicquot, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, who was the first to make high-quality rosé Champagne with a key change in 1818 that is used by most houses today.  

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is still celebrated by Veuve Clicquot to this day as not only does the name of the house translate into ‘Widow Clicquot’ but her passion for excellence, rooted in the Pinot Noir grapes from top vineyards sites, is at the forefront of the house. One of Veuve Clicquot’s winemakers, Gaëlle Goossens, spoke about this grape variety being the “DNA of Veuve Clicquot” and that she considered Madame Clicquot as the creator of Champagne as consumers know it today.

Madame Clicquot’s business savvy is legendary and it was simply based on the idea that it was better to take a loss on sales than to sell inferior wine. And despite many thinking of her skills with sales and marketing, Gaëlle, a winemaker herself, is just as impressed by Madame Clicquot’s winemaking skills. One major discovery was Madame Clicquot inventing the riddling table¹ which significantly raised the quality as well as coming up with blending red wine into white wine (the red grapes that made white wine were not macerated on their skins), avoiding the maceration technique previously used for rosé Champagne, making the cherished rosé Champagne wine that Veuve Clicquot and other well-known houses make today. Her commitment to great rosé Champagne was rooted in her love for Pinot Noir and the great plots she would seek out for this grape would eventually become grand cru vineyards within Champagne.

Although Veuve Clicquot has followed the roadmap of Champagne excellence that Madame Clicquot left for them, they are now taking a big leap to make a stronger commitment to following her roadmap with their top bottling, prestige cuvee, La Grande Dame.

2012 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame

The newest release of La Grande Dame is the 2012 and like the vintage that preceded it, 2008, it is at least 90% Pinot Noir with the rest made up of Chardonnay to make this white Brut Champagne top selection; actually 2008 has 93% Pinot Noir and 2012 has 90% in its blend. Previously the 2006 La Grande Dame had only 53% Pinot Noir (47% Chardonnay) and so this is a significant change. There is no doubt that Veuve Clicquot has always been known as a Pinot Noir house that defines their Champagnes such as their immensely popular Yellow Label as the Yellow Label typically has around 50% Pinot Noir with the rest made up of Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, 30% and 20% respectively.

Gaëlle said that Veuve Clicquot’s focus has mainly been on the Yellow Label in the past as, understandably, it is a great challenge to give consistency to their loyal customers year after year but with the help of using a broad library of reserve wines from other vintages, that make up around 40% to 45% of the Yellow Label’s blend, they are able to achieve such as feat. And so most of their research has been focused on guaranteeing consistency with the Yellow Label and Gaëlle, who not only works in making their base wines but she also is part of their research and development team, states that they do not make a change until there are extensive experiments proving that the style of the house is not lost in such a change.

That style is based on Madame Clicquot wanting a Champagne wine that has energy, finesse and expression of terroir. As times change, such as Climate Change as well as Veuve Clicquot gaining more resources in regards to advanced technology and accumulation of vineyards, they need to pivot to different ways of working to either retain that style or to find a better representation of it. The inkling of a change can take many years from the initial idea to experiments to final integration into what drinkers will taste on the market. Gaëlle says as Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label is comfortably reaching a stage in its life where it has all the premium Pinot Noir vineyards it needs in any given year, even when La Grande Dame is made, that it was time for Veuve Clicquot to make the Grande Dame what it was always meant to be, a true tribute to the Widow Clicquot.

Since Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was such a believer in Pinot Noir’s affinity for terroir expression and its ability for finesse (when grown in the right plots) it makes sense to make the blend of her tribute wine at least 90% Pinot Noir. But Gaëlle says it is difficult and hence one of the reasons it took them so long to get to this point as they do not want heavy, intensely fruit flavored Pinot Noir and so they must seek out the Pinot in the vintages that permit it to be the epitome of finesse and sense of place. And the idea that some of the Pinot Noir grand cru plots, Grande Dame is made up of eight grand cru vineyards², were chosen by Madame Clicquot herself long before they were classified makes this blend even that much more fitting for her memory.

Roadmaps for Future Generations

One would guess that the mission of Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label is to keep a dominant style year after year as opposed to an expression of a single year for Grande Dame yet Gaëlle notes that the Grande Dame needs to be both. Yes, it is a moment in time captured in the bottle but it still adheres to a style which was considered by Madame Clicquot to be the quintessential Champagne ideal: finesse and terroir expression. Gaëlle aptly states that she is there to follow what Madame Clicquot laid down as what was the soul of Champagne, the soul of Veuve Clicquot and that she works hard in the winery and their research department to keep that ideal untarnished in an ever-changing world.

It is remarkable to think that the values, techniques and philosophy that Madame Clicquot devised are still being followed so passionately by another woman today, 200 years later, using the grapes from the vineyards the Widow selected as her favorites and working with the processes she designed. It makes one think of current roadmaps being devised and which ones will still continue to survive over two centuries from now – if there is a young woman, like the young Widow Clicquot, who is at this moment laying down a new standard for several generations to come. Sometimes those who laid down the standards for a better way are never acknowledged as their names fade with their passing yet with Veuve Clicquot they not only continue to give tribute to their namesake but they constantly strive each day to do a better job of living up to her example.

2012 Veuve Clicquot, La Grande Dame: 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay (A blend of grand cru vineyards from Aÿ, Verzenay, Verzy, Ambonnay and Bouzy for Pinot Noir and Avize, Mesnil and Oger for Chardonnay). Wet stones and intense minerality on the nose with hits of white flowers, golden apples and freshly baked bread; more minerality on the palate with chalk and limestone with gentle, pristine flavors of nectarine that had fine bubbles and a bit of structure and crisp acidity that gave it an elegant shape and lots of drive on the finish. After 30 minutes of being open more toasted notes and dried apricot flavors came out.