Pol Roger launches 2000 vintage

This week saw the launch of Pol Roger’s 2000 vintage. The Champagne house marked the occasion with lunch at the recently refurbished Connaught Hotel in London, whose Coburg Bar dedicates a whole page of its Champagne list to Pol Roger.

Visitors to the Mayfair hotel can even try the 1914 vintage for just under £7,000 a bottle.

Describing the 2000 vintage as “more serious that the ‘99”, James Simpson MW, sales director of Pol Roger, revealed that the price would remain “essentially the same” as its ’99 predecessor, with an RRP of around £46. However, he suggested that both Berry Brothers and The Wine Society were planning special release offers for the 2000.

With a customer base focused largely with livery companies, clubs and carefully selected merchants, Simpson noted the particular significance placed by Pol Roger on its vintage Champagnes. “These customers aren’t wanting something too flashy, it’s almost more important for us to launch a vintage than a prestige cuvée,” he explains.

Despite the timing of this release, about a month’s stock still remains of the Pol Roger ’99, which is likely to be the main vintage offered by retailers this Christmas.

Meanwhile, those looking to refresh their memory of earlier Pol Roger vintages should visit the Coburg Bar, whose extensive selection dedicated to this Champagne house reaches right back to 1914 (at a mere £6995 a bottle).

The Coburg Bar menu also lists numerous vintages of Pol Roger’s sought-after Cuvée Winston Churchill and highly regarded Blanc de Blancs.

Gabriel Savage, 05.11.09