Pol Roger to add disgorgement dates

Pol Roger is due to join a growing number of Champagne houses by adding disgorgement information for its wines.

Laurent d’Harcourt, new managing director of Pol Roger, who has instigated this change in policy

While showing a range of historic Pol Roger vintages at a London event organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine, the house’s UK sales director James Simpson MW confirmed that new managing director Laurent d’Harcourt has decided to change the house’s policy in this area.

“It looks as though it’s going to come on-stream next year,” revealed Simpson, who explained that the information would only feature on cases rather than individual bottles. The shift will initially affect non-vintage but is set to extend eventually right through the range up to prestige cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.

Although noting the complexity of creating different labels for each of the house’s regular disgorgements, which had played a significant part in Pol Roger’s reluctance to take this step before, Simpson acknowledged: “Not putting it on at all was extremely patronising for our customers.”

Nevertheless, against the background of an ongoing debate within Champagne about the merits of featuring disgorgement information, Simpson noted: “Ninety-five percent of people we talk to have no idea how Champagne is made, never mind about disgorgement. The Champagne trade has a lot of work to do in terms of education.”