Prelude
⏳ Drinking Window
2020 - 2030
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Fresh oysters, grilled lobster, roasted poultry with wild mushrooms
✨ Technical Specifications
Taittinger's Prélude Grands Crus is a brilliant expression of the finest terroirs in Champagne, crafted from a strict 50/50 selection of Grand Cru Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This cuvée represents a harmonious dialogue between the Côte des Blancs and the Montagne de Reims. The grapes are selected only from the first pressings, ensuring maximum purity. Patiently aged for at least five years in Taittinger's historic Gallo-Roman chalk cellars, this Champagne bridges the gap between the house's non-vintage Brut Réserve and its prestigious Comtes de Champagne. It offers a sensory journey marked by elderflower, citrus, and white peach, underpinned by a rich, brioche-like complexity derived from its extended lees contact.
🍾 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
12.5%