FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 72
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2012
Frost and hail cut the 2012 Champagne crop, then a dry, sunny late summer turned what was left into a Chardonnay that spent a decade in Roman-era chalk pits beneath Reims before one critic gave it 99 points.
- Maker
- Taittinger
- By price in wine
- 96 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Champagne Taittinger, Reims
- Wine
- Comtes de Champagne Grands Crus Blanc de Blancs, vintage 2012
- Grape
- 100% Chardonnay, first-press juice only
- Villages
- Five Cote des Blancs grand crus: Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger
- Oak
- About 5% of the blend spends three to four months in new oak barrels
- Harvest
- September 17 to 30, 2012
- Aging
- About 10 years on the lees in the chalk cellars of Saint-Nicaise, Reims (one merchant says 9)
- Dosage
- 9 grams per liter
- Alcohol
- 12.4%
- First vintage of the cuvee
- 1952
A crusader's grape
Comtes de Champagne is Taittinger's prestige cuvee, and the blanc de blancs version is made entirely from Chardonnay grown in the five grand cru villages of the Cote des Blancs: Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. Only the first pressing of the grapes is used, and only in years the house judges exceptional.
The first vintage was 1952, a year that followed two weak harvests and that produced particularly fine Chardonnay. That first Comtes was released in the early 1960s. How many vintages have followed is counted differently depending on who is counting: one merchant lists 40 vintages from 1952 through 2015, another says 30 had been made, a critic called the 2012 the 39th release, and the house itself now speaks of forty-two vintages since 1952.
The name honors the medieval Counts of Champagne, who ruled the region from 956 to 1284 and presided over the Champagne trade fairs. The cuvee's patron in particular is Thibaud IV, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre, who ruled from 1222 to 1253, led a crusade to the Holy Land in 1239 and was the most celebrated songwriter of his day. Legend says he came home with the Damask rose and with a vine believed to be an ancestor of Chardonnay. His seal is printed on every bottle.
Ten years under Saint-Nicaise
Comtes de Champagne ages beneath the hill of Saint-Nicaise in Reims, in chalk quarries first dug in the Gallo-Roman era. Some of the galleries served as the cellars of the Saint-Nicaise abbey and date to the 13th century; others were dug in the 20th century. Twenty chalk galleries are linked by about four kilometers of vaulted cellars, and the chalk cellars are part of a site protected on UNESCO's list.
The cellars keep a constant temperature and humidity, and the 2012 rested there on its lees for about a decade before disgorgement. Sources differ slightly: the house's U.S. importer and a critic say 10 years, while a British merchant says 9. Disgorgement dates also vary by shipment; one merchant reports April 2022 and a U.S. retailer January 2023, both with 9 grams per liter of dosage.
The Taittinger family's link to the place runs deep. A former residence associated with Thibaud IV has belonged to the family since 1932, the year Pierre Taittinger bought the Chateau de la Marquetterie from the wine house of Forest-Fourneaux, a business founded by Jacques Fourneaux in 1734.
2012: a small crop, a fine one
The 2012 growing season in Champagne was hard on volume. Winter and spring frosts and then hail cut into the crop, and yields were low. What saved the year was a dry, sunny August and September that ripened the remaining grapes without excessive heat.
Taittinger picked from September 17 to 30, 2012, through some particularly cold mornings. The house describes the resulting Chardonnays as complex, with a nose of white flowers and citrus, and very fresh and lively in the mouth. The finished wine measured 12.4% alcohol, with a pH of 3.03 and 4.46 grams per liter of acidity.
The house's own tasting note lists candied citrus, Williams pears and apricots, with pastry and brioche aromas of lemon meringue, nougat and almond. One critic who scored it 98 found hazelnuts, white peaches, lemon rind and hints of apricot, fig and quince, and wrote that it was not just a great Champagne but a great wine.
How it was received
Critics put the 2012 near the top of the scale. James Suckling scored it 99. A U.S. retailer lists 96 from Jeb Dunnuck, Vinous, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator and The Wine Independent, 95 from Decanter and 95+ from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. A British merchant adds 97-98 from Essi Avellan MW and 18 out of 20 from Jancis Robinson MW.
Production of Comtes de Champagne is reported at between 150,000 and 300,000 bottles a vintage, large by the standards of grand cru Burgundy but small for a major Champagne house that holds about 289 hectares of vineyards and keeps 12 to 13 million bottles in stock.
The family behind it
The Taittingers were wine merchants from Lorraine who moved to the Paris region after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Pierre Taittinger's purchase in 1932 began the house as it is known today. His son Francois ran it from 1945 to 1960, the period in which the first Comtes was made, and after Francois died in an accident in 1960 his brother Claude led the house for more than four decades.
In July 2005 the family sold the house to Starwood Capital. On May 31, 2006, it was bought back by a group led by the family with the regional Credit Agricole bank of the Nord-Est, for 660 million euros. The 2012 was made under the family's renewed control; Vitalie Taittinger became president on January 1, 2020, with her brother Clovis as general manager, and the bottles of 2012 reached the market under her leadership.
The bottle today
Comtes de Champagne is one of the more accessible prestige Champagnes. A 2023 review put the 2012 at about $220 to $300 a bottle. A British merchant lists it at 168 pounds a bottle, and a U.S. retailer showed it at $189.94 in October 2026, though out of stock. These are asking prices, not sales.
The numbers
- Grape
- 100% Chardonnay
- Source
- Five Cote des Blancs grand cru villages
- Production
- Reported at 150,000 to 300,000 bottles a vintage
- Aging
- About 10 years on lees (one source: 9)
- Dosage
- 9 g/l
- James Suckling
- 99
- Vinous / Wine Spectator / Jeb Dunnuck
- 96
- Wine Advocate
- 95+
- Jancis Robinson
- 18/20
Timeline
Thibaud IV, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre, leads a crusade to the Holy Land.
Jacques Fourneaux founds the wine business that Taittinger later grows from.
The Taittinger family, merchants from Lorraine, move to the Paris region after the Franco-Prussian War.
Pierre Taittinger buys the Chateau de la Marquetterie from Forest-Fourneaux.
First vintage of Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs.
Claude Taittinger takes over the house after his brother Francois dies.
The house is sold to Starwood Capital.
The family and a regional Credit Agricole bank buy the house back for 660 million euros.
Taittinger begins the 2012 harvest after a season of frost and hail; picking ends September 30.
Vitalie Taittinger becomes president of the house.
Claude Taittinger dies in Paris at 94.
Bottles of the 2012 are disgorged, by one merchant's account, after about a decade on lees.
A critic scores the 2012 at 98 and calls it a great wine, not just a great Champagne.
The world in 2012
The cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off Italy, killing 32.
CERN announces the discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
The Summer Olympics open in London.
NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
Felix Baumgartner breaks the sound barrier in a jump from about 128,000 feet.
Hurricane Sandy forms; it goes on to kill 233 people.
Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $190 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle at a U.S. merchant, listed out of stock. Not a sale. |
| Oct 2026 | $225 | Asking price, not a saleA British Champagne merchant, single 75cl bottle: GBP 168 (asking price), shown in USD at the Federal Reserve monthly average (1 GBP = 1.3406 USD). |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2012 is number 96 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (72 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The seal of a 13th-century crusader king and songwriter, Thibaud IV, appears on every bottle of Comtes de Champagne.
- Legend credits Thibaud IV with bringing home from the Crusades both the Damask rose and an ancestor of Chardonnay.
- The wine ages in chalk quarries dug in Roman times beneath Reims, part of a site protected on UNESCO's list.
- The first Comtes de Champagne, the 1952, was not released until the early 1960s.
- Even the number of Comtes vintages is disputed: counts range from 30 to 42.
- The family sold the house in 2005 and bought it back less than a year later.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026