1986 Dom Ruinart

The cold winter delayed budding until the beginning of May, but warm dry weather allowed a very speedy recovery, with flowering by the end of June. Until August 10th, the summer remained dry and quite warm, but then rain set in with lower temperatures. The return of fine weather on September 18th limited the spread of botrytis, although it came back towards the end, in particular on the pinots noirs. Chardonnays started picking on September 28th under beautiful sunshine. Harvest: Baumé 9°3 GL – Total acidity 10.2 g/l H2SO4 – pH 3.04 – S/A 15.4 Chardonnay: Baumé 9°6 GL – Total acidity 10.7 g/l H2SO4 Declared yield: 11,581 kg/ha Assemblage: 100% Chardonnay Grand Cru, 67% from the Côte des Blancs and 33% from the Montagne de Reims. Disgorged 1994. Really very deep gold. Definitely old on the nose. This is champagne for the Brits! (The French are curling up their noses at it.) Solid and pretty dry on the finish. You'd have to be committed to old champagne to love this. Not an especially ripe vintage so quite a low dosage. They will show this en magnum with food, just to show us how good it can be! (JR)