1996 Champagne Vranken Cuvée Diamant Bleu in luxe coffret
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Sweetness: brut. At most 12 g/l sugar.
Acidity: fairly high. The cool climate of Champagne.
Made: in , with a second fermentation in the bottle, as a millésime aged at least 3 years
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Log inPaul-François Vranken, a Belgian entrepreneur, created the Diamant brand in 1975 and founded his own Champagne house a year later. He built it into Vranken-Pommery Monopole, one of the largest Champagne groups, which includes Pommery, Heidsieck & Co Monopole and Charles Lafitte. The Diamant cuvées are the house’s flagship range, recognisable by their faceted bottle shaped like a cut diamond.
This Cuvée Diamant Bleu 1996 was released in autumn 2024 as a very limited edition. The house took the bottles from its own cellars after almost thirty years of ageing and disgorged them in 2024. Each bottle comes in a luxury presentation case. The Netherlands received an allocation of only 6 bottles.
Diamant Bleu 1996 is a Grand Cru blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs brings finesse, elegance and minerality. Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims adds power and intensity. 1996 was an erratic year, with hot, dry spells switching quickly with cool, rainy ones. It produced one of the most celebrated Champagne vintages, known for its exceptionally high acidity. In the glass it is golden yellow with a very fine mousse. The nose shows ripe, almost candied yellow fruit, spice and black pepper, then toast and undergrowth. The palate is strikingly fresh for its age: candied fruit and honey give way to citrus zest, with a long, mineral finish. Serve at 10–12°C with lobster, grilled scallops or poultry with morels in a cream sauce.
FACT: Diamant Bleu used to be released under the Heidsieck & Co Monopole label. Vranken bought that house in 1996, the same year this wine was harvested.
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Wine features
Champagne Vranken Pommery is a house with a long and eventful history. The immense success of this special Champagne house was based on a widow. Remarkably enough, this was the case at more Champagne houses, such as the well-known Veuve Cliquot, which even added the word "widow" to its name.
Pommery's steadfast widow was Madame Jeanne-Alexandrine Louise Pommery (1819-1880). Her husband, Louis Alexandre Pommery, died when she was only 20 years old. The Champagne House was still in its infancy at the time and produced no more than 100,000 bottles, especially still wines still very common at the beginning of the 19th century. Jeanne-Alexandrine switched completely to sparkling wines, and with her zeal and energy laid the foundation for one of the most famous grandes marques. By the time of her death, production had risen to two million bottles.
She had a special house built in Reims, in a mix of styles and materials — the idea of a kind of castle, but not really. Very colorful in any case, and can still be admired as Pommery's headquarters. What she did underground was more impressive and, in any case, more important for making fine champagne: she expanded the cellars of Vranken Pommery by more than 15 square kilometers; of enormous importance for the quiet maturation of the bottles of Champagne. After her death, her work was continued by her daughter Louise with her husband, Prince Guy de Polignac.
The French Champagne and wine group Vranken Pommery has its origins in 1976 when the Belgian Paul Francois Vranken launched his own champagne brand. It is a major player in the field of sparkling wines. They market different brands. The Pommery brand has been associated with this since 2002. Since then, the group is fully called Vranken Pommery Monopole. It is the largest brand with high quality cuvees. The Pommery Wines are mainly found in the supermarket and are the more commercial brands while the Vranken versions are the more high-end quality versions — always made from our own grapes and vineyards.
Goudgeel van kleur met een zeer fijne mousse, toont deze Cuvée Diamant Bleu rijp, bijna gekonfijt geel fruit en honing naast kruidige tonen van zwarte peper, toast en bosgrond, terwijl een uitgesproken frisse zuurgraad en een lange minerale afdronk voor balans zorgen. Juist die frisse zuurgraad en subtiele toastiness snijden door rijke smaken heen en maakt de wijn ideaal bij kreeft of gegrild kreeftenvlees, bij gegrilde coquilles of licht gebruinde coquilles en bij gevogelte met romige morieljesaus, omdat hij zowel het zoete van schelpdieren als de romigheid van sauzen verfrist en accentueert. Kies bij voorkeur voor gegrilde of licht aangedapte bereidingen zoals gegrilde coquilles met een beurre blanc of geroosterde kreeft met citroenboter en voor het gevogelte een goudbruin gebraden borstfilet met morieljes in roomsaus om de combinatie echt tot zijn recht te laten komen; serveer op 10–12°C.
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