Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Champagne Brut 1996

The flagship bottling of Veuve Clicquot has always struck us a being a step ahead of the class in terms of yeasty richness and aged complexities, and so again La Grande Dame has gone well beyond fruit in its successful pursuit of intensity and unabashed autolysis. A deep and involving wine with an amplified sense of substance in the mouth, it is finished with a noticeable edge of acidity, but its ample flavors do not abate and its scant closing stiffness seems a minor price to pay for the unrelenting richness that is the wine's essential gift.