Champagne Pol Roger, Réserve, Brut

33% Chardonnay, 33% Pinot Noir, 33% Pinot Meunier, 12 g/LThere is plenty of citrus character present on the green apple, floral and discreet spice wisps. There is good verve to the delicious and relatively rich medium-weight flavours shaped by a moderately firm, if not especially refined, mousse, all wrapped in a clean, dry and notably complex finish that is definitely drier than the stated dosage level would suggest.Drink nowallen_meadows, burghound_com.com (October 2017)

Equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier, the NV Champagne Reserve Brut has the 2019 vintage as its base, with 25% reserve wine. It pours a bright silver straw hue and is fresh on opening, with a floral perfume of white flowers, fresh pear, and fresh almond. Medium-bodied, it’s attractive and approachable, with juicy peach fruit that fills the palate, although it stays refined, with a pinpoint mousse and a clean finish. It is a lovely entry to the range to enjoy now or over the next 6-8 years, and I love this as an aperitif style—8 grams per litre of dosage.Pol Roger is a sixth-generation family-owned business founded in 1849 focused on Champagne based in Epernay. Damien Cambres replaced former chef de cave Dominique Petit in 2018. Since 2011, they have fully moved to stainless steel fermentation and ageing. They house 9.5 kilometres of notably deep cellars at 33 meters underground and employ four full-time riddlers to turn the bottles and carefully collect sediment from them. (Only 11 exist in the region today.) This year, they completed a new facility for packaging and shipping that rests on the footprint of the historic site of the original cellars, which disastrously collapsed in 1900, destroying 1.5 million bottles. In August of 2022, Christian de Billy passed away at 93. He was the great-grandson of Pol Roger and was instrumental in the creation and launch of several cuvées, including the Rosé in 1961, the Blanc de Blancs vintage cuvée in 1965, and the cuvée Sir Winston Churchill in 1984 with the 1975 vintage. They own 92 hectares today and produce approximately 1.7 million bottles annually. Pol Roger is a Pinot Noir-based house that focuses on the art of blending. The wines strike a balance of refinement in the mousse without shying away from power and structure across the range.Drink 2023 - 2031audrey_frick, JebDunnuck.com (November 2023)

Dosage 10 g/l. Aged 36 months on lees.Cooked apple, biscuit, savoury and long. Delicious salted-bread aftertaste. The absolute prototype of champagne, and I appreciate the generous dosage.Drink 2021 - 2025richard_hemming_mw, JancisRobinson.com (August 2021)

Fresh Amalfi lemons, pear skins, apples, rhubarb and hints of anise on the nose. Excellent depth and flavour concentration here, with a medium body and creamy bubbles. Fruit and spice are deliciously integrated. Drink nowjames_suckling, jamessuckling_com (July 2023)

Richly biscuity on the nose, steamed rice, fresh pear and citrus blossom complexity. Creamy mousse dissolves into red apple peel, lemon and stone fruits, with a depth of honeyed biscuits. The Reserve NV from Pol Roger blends base wines from at least three vintages. With six months of post-disgorgement ageing, the wine is ready to enjoy now.Drink 2021 - 2026Sylvia Wu, Decanter.com (October 2021)

The current release of Pol Roger's NV Brut Réserve is quite dramatic, bursting with aromas of mandarin oil, honeycomb, elderflower, fresh bread and musky peach. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, it's generous and textural, with a rich core of fruit, lively acids and a pillowy mousse.One of Champagne's finest houses, Pol Roger, produces among the most consistent Grandes Marques ranges. The style is full-bodied and elegantly fleshy, dominated by Pinot Noir. Only some 20% of any given year will be vintaged, as the Maison privileges its NV Brut Réserve—and indeed, while many non-vintage Bruts fluctuate in quality, Pol Roger's "white foil" bottling is both remarkably reliable and long-lived—which ranks as one of the region's best values. Today, the house ferments all its base wines in stainless steel at low temperature, followed by manual riddling.Drink 2021 - 2035William Kelley, Wine Advocate (March 2021)