Veuve Clicquot: Yellow Label, Rosé, Rich and La Grande Dame. Which to choose?
To start with, the best choice is Veuve Clicquot Brut with the yellow label, a dry non-vintage Champagne with which the house's whole range begins. With food and for a dinner for two, the Brut Rosé works well; in summer, the sweet Rich over ice; and for a big occasion, La Grande Dame 2018. The product panels next to the descriptions show the current price and availability of every Veuve Clicquot bottle in our range.
Which Veuve Clicquot should you choose?
If you are buying for the first time, or as a gift for someone whose taste you do not know, take the Yellow Label Brut: it is dry, recognisable and the cheapest in the range.
Veuve Clicquot (pronounced vuhv klee-KOH) from Reims (pronounced rans), the house of the widow Barbe-Nicole Clicquot (pronounced klee-KOH), makes several wines, but they all grow from one idea: plenty of Pinot Noir and a large stock of older reserve wines. According to the house, around 400 reserve wines up to 30 years old wait in its cellars. The differences between the bottles come from three decisions: how much sugar to add, whether to add red wine and whether to blend vintages. The table sets them side by side.
| Wine | Sugar (g/l) | Grape varieties | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brut Yellow Label | 9 (Brut) | Pinot Noir 50-55%, Chardonnay 28-33%, Meunier 15-20%; up to 45% reserve wines | aperitif, toast, nibbles |
| Brut Rosé | approx. 8-9 (Brut) | Yellow Label blend plus 12% red wine from Pinot Noir | sashimi, salmon, red fruit |
| Rich | 55 (sweet) | Pinot Noir 50%, Meunier 30%, Chardonnay 20% | over ice, in summer, in cocktails |
| Demi-Sec | 45 (Demi-Sec pronounced duh-MEE SEK) | Pinot Noir 50%, Meunier 30%, Chardonnay 20% | desserts, fruit tart |
| Extra Brut Extra Old | 3 (Extra Brut) | reserve wines only, from several vintages | oysters, tartare, ceviche |
| La Grande Dame (pronounced grahn DAHM) 2018 | 6 | Pinot Noir 90%, Chardonnay 10% | dinner, scallops, gift |
The figures come from the wine descriptions on the Veuve Clicquot website. For Brut Rosé the house gives 9 g/l in the specification and 8 g/l in its answers to customer questions, which is why we write “approx. 8-9”. Under EU rules, Brut is less than 12 g of sugar per litre, Extra Brut 0 to 6 g, Demi-Sec 32 to 50 g, and above 50 g a Champagne is sweet (Doux). Rich therefore falls into the sweetest category.
Brut Yellow Label: the yellow label
Veuve Clicquot Brut is a dry non-vintage Champagne with Pinot Noir predominating, recognisable by its yellow label, which the house has used since 1876.
Half the blend is Pinot Noir, which gives the Champagne structure and notes of pear, peach and pastry; Chardonnay adds freshness and Meunier roundness. The grapes come from 50-60 villages, and up to 45% of the blend is reserve wines from earlier years, so the style is similar every year. The house recommends serving it at 8-10 °C and reckons it can age for another three to five years. Veuve Clicquot registered the yellow colour of the label as a trade mark in 1877.
We also have the same Champagne in a 1.5 l magnum; the 0.375 l half-bottle is temporarily unavailable. We compare Yellow Label with other dry Champagnes at this price in ranking of Champagnes from 250 to 400 zł.
Brut Rosé: rosé with red wine
Brut Rosé is the Yellow Label blend with 12% red wine from Pinot Noir added; it is dry, fuller and fruitier than the white.
In 1818 Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, instead of colouring Champagne with elderberry juice, added red wine from her own vineyards in Bouzy (pronounced boo-ZEE). This is how the first known blended rosé Champagne came about, and the house still makes it this way today. The red wine brings notes of cherry, strawberry, raspberry and blueberry, plus spice and gingerbread. The house recommends it with sashimi; it also goes with salmon and duck. We have it as a bottle without packaging and in two box versions. Other rosé Champagnes are compared in the ranking of rosé Champagnes.
Rich and Demi-Sec: the sweeter bottles
Rich has 55 g of sugar per litre and is meant to be drunk over ice; Demi-Sec has 45 g/l and is drunk chilled, ideally with dessert.
Rich was created to be drunk over ice. The house recommends filling the glass halfway and adding a ball of ice, or serving the wine chilled to 4 °C. Pineapple and mango dominate the palate, and pear, lemongrass and verbena add freshness. Without ice, at normal temperature, Rich tastes very sweet, because it is designed to be diluted by the ice. In our shop it is listed as Rich on Ice.
Demi-Sec is a classic medium-sweet Champagne: more Meunier than in Yellow Label, three years in chalk cellars and 45 g of sugar per litre. On the nose, apricots, peaches, candied fruit and brioche. The house recommends it with apricot tart, sorbets and vanilla desserts. Both versions, with and without a box, are temporarily unavailable. Sweeter Champagnes from other houses are compared in the ranking of sweeter Champagnes, and we explain the difference between Demi-Sec and Doux in the article on medium-sweet Champagne.
Extra Brut Extra Old: reserve wines only
Extra Brut Extra Old is made exclusively from reserve wines from several vintages and has only 3 g of sugar per litre.
Reserve wines are usually an addition that evens out the taste of a non-vintage Champagne. Here they are the whole wine. The house releases it in successive numbered editions; the fourth combines wines from 1996, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 (50% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, 20% Meunier) and spends at least three years in the cellar before disgorgement. Thanks to the low sugar and older wines, the Champagne is dry, with notes of citrus, pear, ginger and bread dough. It is a good choice for someone who finds Yellow Label too round. We write more about this category in the article Extra Brut and Brut Nature (pronounced broot na-TEWR).
La Grande Dame 2018: a wine for a big occasion
La Grande Dame is the prestige cuvée (pronounced koo-VAY) of the house; 2018 is its 25th vintage and is 90% Pinot Noir.
The name recalls Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, who was called the Grande Dame of Champagne. The widow's favourite variety was Pinot Noir. She wrote that “our black grapes make the best white wines”, and today's La Grande Dame follows this idea: 90% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay, 6 g of sugar per litre. Chef de cave Didier Mariotti says it shows a new face of Pinot Noir. The house recommends a temperature of 10-12 °C and reckons the wine can age for more than 15 years. Scores for the 2018 vintage: Natalie Earl (Decanter) 97/100, Alison Napjus (Wine Spectator) 95/100, Antonio Galloni (Vinous) and James Suckling 94/100 each. The bottle is sold in a gift box.
Other prestige cuvées, from Dom Pérignon to Krug, are compared in the ranking of Champagnes over 800 zł.
How much does Veuve Clicquot cost and what does the price depend on?
The Yellow Label Brut is the cheapest, Rich and Brut Rosé are slightly more expensive, Extra Brut Extra Old is noticeably more expensive, and La Grande Dame is the most expensive.
The longer the wine matures and the rarer the wines that go into the bottle, the more expensive it is. Yellow Label and Rosé are made in large quantities. Extra Brut Extra Old consists entirely of older reserve wines. La Grande Dame comes from a single vintage and from the house's historic plots. A magnum costs more than two standard bottles, and a box adds the cost of the packaging to the price. We do not give prices in the text because they change with deliveries; the product panels next to each bottle show the current ones.
Veuve Clicquot or Moët?
Both houses belong to the same group, but Veuve Clicquot has more Pinot Noir and a little more sugar in its entry-level Champagne, while Moët (pronounced mo-ET) has more Meunier.
Veuve Clicquot Brut has 50-55% Pinot Noir, 15-20% Meunier and 9 g of sugar per litre. Moët Brut Impérial (pronounced broot am-pay-ree-AL) has 30-40% Pinot Noir, 30-40% Meunier and 7 g of sugar. Veuve Clicquot describes the style of its Brut with the words “power, freshness, richness of aromas”, while Moët speaks of “vibrant fruitiness”. These words capture the difference in the glass well. Both houses also have a sweeter version for drinking over ice: Clicquot Rich with 55 g/l and Moët Ice Impérial (pronounced ice am-pay-ree-AL) with 45 g/l. We describe the Moët range in the guide Moët & Chandon: which to choose (pronounced mo-et ay shon-don).
