Veuve Cliquot Cave Privée Collection Rose 1989
Veuve Clicquot has re-released the first selection of vintage Champagnes in the Cave Privée Collection. For the last 35 years, limited stocks of Veuve Clicquot’s vintages have been kept in the house’s private cellar, the Cave Privée.
The inaugural offering includes the Brut Millesime 1990, the 1980 Vintage and the three rosés from 1989, 1978 and 1975.
The Cave Privée label has been designed to recall the original Veuve Clicquot vintage label dating from 1893 - each bottle comes in a wooden box with a yellow ribbon woven through it. The bottles are also individually numbered on the neck collar, and the back label carries disgorgement details including the date, the total number of bottles disgorged and the g/l of residual sugar in the dosage liquor.
Further limited numbers from the Cave Privée will be re-released to the market in the future.
THE VINTAGE
1989 was a warm , sunny year, comparable to such legendary vintages as 1945, 1959 and 1964. After an unusually early budburst, the vines suffered a cold spell. On 27 April a severe Spring frost hit a large area of Champagne’s vine-growing region. The Vallée de la Marne and the Eastern part of the Montagne de Reims suffered significant damage, while the Côte des Blancs escaped. Due to their sheltered position in the heart of Champagne’s finest Crus, the vineyards of Veuve Clicquot were largely unaffected.
Afterwards, a period of almost summer-like weather allowed the vines to return to their normal cycle. A few colder days, coming when the vines were at their vulnerable flowering stage, made us doubt for an instant if we would achieve a quality vintage. But our fears were ungrounded; a period of exceptional weather quickly followed, and came to stay. From mid-June through to the vintage, one warm sunny day followed another.
The first grapes, ripened in these perfect conditions, were harvested from the 4th September
onwards, in our Grands Crus in the Côte des Blancs. A few more days of ripening for the Pinots Noirs and Pinots Meuniers allowed us to gather top quality grapes in a perfect state of health. Overall, an average of 10 degrees on the Gay-Lussac scale was achieve accros the area, with certain Crus even attaining 11 degrees.
THE BLEND
Rosé Reserve 1989 is based on the blend used for Vintage Réserve 1989: 67% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne, and 33% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs. The addition of 12.8% of Pinot Noir from Bouzy, vinified as a red wine, and of the same 1989 vintage, completes the blend.
