Imai
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2035
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pan-seared scallops, roasted turbot with butter sauce, aged Comté cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
The Taittinger Collection was conceived in the late 1970s by Claude Taittinger to marry the worlds of fine art and exceptional Champagne. For the 1988 vintage, the house commissioned the celebrated Japanese artist Toshimitsu Imai, a pioneer of the Art Informel movement. Imai's design, applied directly to the bottle, draws inspiration from the traditional Japanese Rimpa school, featuring delicate golden leaves and cherry blossoms that symbolize the ephemeral beauty of nature. Inside the bottle is a masterfully crafted Brut Millésimé, sourced from Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards. It represents a harmonious blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, aged for several years in Taittinger's historic Gallo-Roman chalk cellars to achieve a perfect balance of freshness, complexity, and creamy texture.
🍾 About the Producer
Tracing its viticultural lineage to 1734 through the historic house of Forest-Fourneaux, Champagne Taittinger was formally inaugurated under the family name in the 1930s by Pierre Taittinger after acquiring the Château de la Marquetterie. Today, the maison remains an independent, family-led enterprise directed by Vitalie Taittinger with cellar master Alexandre Ponnavoy. Taittinger manages approximately 288 hectares of sustainably farmed vineyards, certified under Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE) and Viticulture Durable en Champagne (VDC), spanning premier terroirs across the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, and the Marne Valley. Here, pure Cretaceous chalk soils, gentle slopes, and a marginal semi-continental climate impart hallmark tension and refined minerality. Taittinger's winemaking philosophy champions a distinctively high proportion of Chardonnay, yielding cuvées of crystalline precision, airy floral lift, and structural grace. Prolonged aging takes place inside subterranean 4th-century Gallo-Roman chalk crayères beneath the historic Saint-Nicaise abbey ruins, culminating in iconic prestige expressions like the 100% Grand Cru Chardonnay Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs.
🍇 Grapes
Chardonnay 50%, Pinot Noir 50%
🍷 ABV
12%