🍾 Mercier Vintage 2003

Mercier Vintage 2003 is the 2003 release of Vintage by the house Mercier, a vintage white Champagne.

According to the house, the wine belongs to the exclusive “Vendanges Mercier” range, which follows the house's viticultural journey year by year; the wine spent 22 years in the cellar.

The house Mercier was founded in 1858 in Épernay by Eugène Mercier; it is known for its 18 km of cellars and its giant barrel.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Check the label for the sugar term (brut, extra brut and so on): the house does not state it on the wine's page.

Why it matters to you. The year on the label is the harvest year, so different years of the same line are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.