NV Taittinger Champagne Brut La Francaise Balthazar (12 Liter)

(91 points) The current bottling of Taittinger’s “Brut La Française” shares the same cépages as the Brut Réserve (forty percent chardonnay, thirty-five percent pinot noir and twenty-five percent pinot meunier), with the wine spending one additional year aging on its fine lees prior to disgorgement. The bouquet on the wine is lovely, offering a classy blend of pear, apple, a complex base of limestone soil, bread dough, gently musky, meunier floral tones and a bit of smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is bright, full and zesty, with fine mid-palate depth, youthful acids, frothy mousse and very good length and grip on the still quite primary finish. This has such nice balance that it is eminently drinkable today, but it really is still a puppy and would be happy with a bit of bottle age to allow its secondary layers of complexity to emerge. (5/2023) John Gilman