The Shout Magazine (New Zealand)

Moët & Chandon releases a trilogy of Grand Vintages

Moët & Chandon’s Cellar Master Benoît Gouez has unveiled three new Grand Vintages, presenting them as a trilogy called ‘Tale of Light’.

The vintages were chosen by Gouez to narrate the story of the passage of time.

Grand Vintage 2015, Grand Vintage Collection 2006 and Grand Vintage Collection 1999 reflect the impact of three different maturation periods, but are champagnes with a common luminous experience.

Presented together, their characteristics are magnified so that each vintage reveals not just its own, but also the greater tale of their collective experience of nature in Champagne.

“Each Grand Vintage is my interpretation of a specific year, and as such, is unique,” says Gouez.

“This trilogy is composed of a Grand Vintage and two Grand Vintage Collection champagnes, all different, but products of relatively similar climatic conditions, forming a one-of-a-kind trio to tell their shared Tale of Light.”

Benoît Gouez joined Moët & Chandon in 1998 and became Cellar Master (Chef de Caves) in 2005, taking his own unique route to becoming a champagne maker.

It was, as he says ‘a series of chance encounters and fortunate events’ that led to his career Moët & Chandon.

Each of the three Tale of Light champagnes is blended from the grapes picked only in the year that is etched on their label.

While sharing the same dosage as the extra-brut, each is specific in its composition and made of the highest quality still wines selected by the Cellar Master.

The Maison matures its Grand Vintages for around seven years on the lees with a crown cap seal and the first disgorgement of a particular vintage is declared by the Cellar Master; and The Grand Vintage Collections are matured for a minimum of 14 years in the cellars on a cork closure and are the second disgorgement of a previously released Grand Vintage.

Less than 1000 collections of The Tale of Light Trilogy will be available worldwide.

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