Zao Wou-ki
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2030
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pan-seared scallops, roasted pheasant, aged Comté cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
The Taittinger Collection, initiated in 1983 by Claude Taittinger, bridges the worlds of fine art and exceptional Champagne by commissioning renowned contemporary artists to design the outer sheath of select vintage releases. The Zao Wou-ki edition showcases the ethereal, abstract expressionism of the celebrated Chinese-French painter. Inside the artistic vessel lies a prestigious Millésimé Champagne crafted exclusively from first-press juice of Grand and Premier Cru vineyards. This cuvée undergoes extended cellar aging on its lees in Taittinger's historic Gallo-Roman chalk crayères, resulting in a harmonious marriage of Chardonnay's mineral elegance and Pinot Noir's structured richness.
🍾 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%