Champagne Pol Roger was founded in Épernay in 1849 and remains one of the last great houses still owned and run by the founding family.

The house is inseparable from Sir Winston Churchill, who drank it for half a century and whose name was given to the prestige cuvée created in his honour. On his death in 1965, Pol Roger added a black border to its labels for the British market.

Its cellars run some 33 metres below Épernay — among the deepest and coldest in Champagne. The low temperature slows the second fermentation, which is much of why these wines carry so fine and persistent a bead. Riddling is still done by hand.

The Brut Vintage is declared only in years the house considers worthy, and drawn entirely from grand cru and premier cru villages — a near-even partnership of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, aged at length in the deep cellars before release.

2016 tested Champagne severely: spring frost, then mildew, then a hot dry summer that saved the crop. What survived is concentrated and unusually taut.

White peach and quince over toasted hazelnut and a hint of honey; rich on entry yet taut through the middle, with a fine mousse and a long saline close.