This is showing incredible complexity with notes of preserved lemons, beeswax, chamomile, quince and porcini mushrooms. Salted caramel also. It's full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with rich and salty layers. Fantastic freshness, too. Powerful and keeps going. This was disgorged in 2012. Ten years on the lees and ten years in bottle. Drink or hold.

The 2002 Comtes has been a legend in the making since its first release, and at age twelve, the wine is starting to really stretch its wings and aim for the stars. The utterly brilliant nose is still a tad on the reticent side, but as the wine warms up in the glass, it offers up a stellar constellation of pear, delicious apples, complex chalkiness, brioche, apple blossoms, incipient notes of pastry cream, plenty of smokiness and a topnote of lemon peel. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and utterly seamless, with stunning focus and balance, unrepentant refinement, elegant mousse, zesty acids and stunning cut and grip on the endless and dancing finish. I am hard-pressed to think of a finer young vintage of Comtes de Champagne that has ever crossed my path! It seems to me that it is still infanticide to be drinking this wine today, as there is so much more to unfold with more bottle age, and I would not touch a bottle until it starts to close in on its twentieth birthday. Chapeau!

The 2002 Brut Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne is beginning to drink very well, wafting from the glass with a brilliant bouquet that mingles aromas of pear, citrus confit and dried fruits with notions of marzipan, brioche, oyster shell and smoke. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, broad and textural, with a layered and multidimensional core, considerable concentration and a long, penetrating finish. Racy and precise though the wine is, this is a somewhat broader, richer rendition of Comtes than the compelling 2008 that preceded it in this tasting, but it's hard to choose between the two in terms of quality. - William Kelley

The latest release of the legendary Comtes de Champagne comes from a great vintage. It has full, toasty bottle-age notes that give the wine depth of flavor, with a ripe, rounded mouthfeel and taut acidity. An almond note combines with the citrus-driven acidity on the finish.

A rich base of toasted brioche and briny mineral supports flavors of poached quince, white peach puree, fleur de sel, pastry and smoked almond. There's a quiet verve to this wine, with a fine, silky texture throughout. Drink now through 2025. – AN

A beautifully elegant and ultra-pure nose serves up attractively layered and slightly phenolic aromas of spiced pear, white rose, citrus, brioche and hints of green apple. There is very good if not stunning complexity to the moderately vibrant flavors that are supported by an impressively refined effervescence before terminating in a balanced, dry, clean and lingering finish. While this could certainly be enjoyed now I would be inclined to hold it for another 2 to 4 years to allow for a bit more overall depth to develop. 2017+

From its first, complex, generously yeasty aromas and on through its very deep, distinctly autolyzed flavors, this rich and compelling wine goes beyond the normal bounds of Blanc de Blancs. It is amazingly rich and charged by a very fine stream of unending bubbles, and it has the vitality that its genre predicts, but it has more volume and comes with more layers of interest than we anticipate from a Chardonnay cuvée. It will drink wonderfully with any number of lighter foods, but it is a complex and most involving wine that we would gladly sip slowly on its own.