🍾 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill

Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill is the vintage Champagne line of the house Pol Roger in Épernay: each release carries the harvest year on its label. Each year has its own page on this site: 2018, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996.

According to the house, it is its prestige cuvée, created as a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill and reflecting the qualities he sought in champagne: a firm structure, a full-bodied character and a certain maturity. The exact blend is a closely guarded family secret; the house states that the wine is made exclusively from grapes of Grand Cru vineyards (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), with Pinot Noir predominating, in very small quantities and only in the best vintages.

The house Pol Roger dates from 1849, when Pol Roger began selling wine in Aÿ; since 1851 it has been based in Épernay.

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.

Under the rules of the Champagne designation, vintage Champagne is aged for at least 36 months before sale; the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle.

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.