This is a cuvée that opens on yellow fruit and a spiced note, before drifting towards touches of honey, undergrowth and toasted notes. The texture reveals itself as wine-like and full, carried by a mineral tension that gives it real definition.
The Oenothèque Vintage 2002 cuvée from Palmer & Co is a vintage champagne. 2002 remains a celebrated year in Champagne for its generosity and elegance.
This is a bottle you can pour from the aperitif onwards, alongside comté gougères for example, before bringing it to the table with a poularde with morels.
The Terroir
The Oenothèque Vintage 2002 cuvée is a blend of:
- 55% Chardonnay
- 45% Pinot Noir
These are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes sourced from Premier Cru-classified vineyards, tended by Palmer & Co in Champagne. This classification distinguishes plots recognised for the consistent quality of their grapes, selected year after year by the House to make up its most accomplished cuvées. On these terroirs, work in the vineyard is above all geared towards preserving the natural balance between acidity and ripeness, an essential condition for a wine destined to age for several decades before release. Here, Chardonnay lends the wine its tension and finesse, while Pinot Noir gives it structure and depth.
The Winemaking
Xavier Berdin, Cellar Master at Palmer & Co, chose the blend for this 2002 vintage between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wine ferments in stainless steel tanks, a vessel that preserves the purity of the fruit without imparting any oaky notes. Full malolactic fermentation was carried out: this rounds off the acidity and lends a velvety texture on the palate.
After bottling, this 2002 continued its rest in the cellar, time that allows the aromas to knit together and develop notes of dried fruit. The dosage, in Brut style, follows a classic dosage: it adds no more than a touch of roundness, never masking the wine's structure or character.
The 2002 Vintage
In 2002, Champagne welcomed back generous sunshine after a rain-marked 2001 harvest: that year, warm sun accompanied the grape picking, giving growers hope of finally securing the century's first great vintage. This return of the sun allowed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to reach full ripeness, without the climatic setbacks that can sometimes complicate the harvest. Grapes picked in these conditions yield dense, ripe wines with plenty of substance to age well in the cellar. This sun-drenched generosity gives the cuvée an expansive and indulgent character, where the ripeness of the fruit expresses itself fully after these long years spent in the cellar.
