Essi Avellan | Rich, developing nose, with just a touch of brown or bruised fruit of an oxidative kind. Vanilla red fruit and baking spices. The palate has austerity and seems to be cut short. Some phenolics, too. The second bottle does not have the oxidative characters. It comes with a beautiful nose of detailed, pristine fruitiness. Still a touch short and dry at the finish. | 94

Simon Field | A deep color; honey and praline on the nose; a touch lactic, with hints of tobacco and earth behind that. The palate is broad and creamy, fulsome and surprisingly rounded for all of its lack of sugar. Brown sugar and a touch of mocha on the finish. | 89

Tom Stevenson: First bottle: Oxidative aromas spilling into the fruit. (Would have been 84 points.) Second bottle: Pure and precise—what a difference a cork can make! Not TCA, but simply a difference in porosity and oxygen ingress. There is a little oxidative note, but only natural in a 16-year-old Champagne. | 94

Dosage 0 g/l