In time for Valentine’s Day celebrations, Veuve Clicquot and artist Yayoi Kusama release a very special take on the house’s La Grande Dame 2012 vintage.
Even if you don’t subscribe to all the commercialism of Valentine’s Day, we can all appreciate the need for a bottle of champagne in the fridge – you know, for celebratory emergencies – and it helps if said bottle also has a story behind it. Enter My Heart that Blooms in the Darkness of the Night, a suitably romantic name for Veuve’s collaboration with contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who was tasked with presenting the champagne house’s new vintage, the La Grande Dame 2012.
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The result is an original creation by Kusama that’s a vibrant tribute to “la grande dame” of Champagne, Madame Clicquot, founder of Veuve Clicquot.
Kusama has designed the La Grande Dame 2012 case and bottle using her iconic symbols, flowers, and polka dots in a message of hope and optimism when we could use it most.
The vintage is also a homage to Pinot Noir, which Madame Clicquot believed had the broadest range of expression and potential to create champagne. It was her love for Pinot Noir that led her to acquire ten of the House’s twelve emblematic Pinot Noir parcels, and since then, Pinot Noir has been the hallmark of Veuve Clicquot’s style, providing the structure and
the strength that is so typically its signature.
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At 90 percent Pinot Noir, La Grande Dame 2012’s blend is all about this grape, magnified by 10 percent Chardonnay from the Grands Crus of Avize and Mesnil-Sur-Oger in the Côte des Blancs. Champagne lovers will discover hints of jasmine, honeysuckle, and vine flowers o the nose, followed by fruiter nuances of apple, pear, and peach, with more complex aromas of dried apricot, hazelnuts, honey, and sugar candy on the palate.
Pair Le Grand Dame 2012 with vegetables accompanied by quail, skate wing, or sea urchin.
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