Delamotte
Blanc de Blancs
Champagne
2012

The producer

Founded in 1760 in Reims, Delamotte is one of the oldest champagne houses and one that is entirely focused on Chardonnay from the Cote des Blancs vineyards. The range is based on four cuvees – all with a unique mineral impression – but since the beginning of the 20^th century the focus of the house has been on Blanc de Blancs champagne, and this is also what we currently list. Grapes are sourced only from the finest grand and premier cru vineyards, and the winemaking is traditional with a minimal approach in order to allow the grape material to express itself to its fullest. Delamotte is the sister estate to super star champagne house ‘Salon’ and regularly referred to by connoisseurs around the world as an expertly crafted ‘value’ offer.

The wine

Made entirely from Grand Cru Chardonnay, growing in pure chalk soil in the Cote des Blancs, Delamotte’s Blanc de Blancs is a highly mineral champagne with stony citrus aromatics, texture, and a saline citrus finish. The winemaking is traditional with a minimal approach in order to allow the grape material to express itself to its fullest.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.