Veuve Clicquot was founded in Reims in 1772. Its name and its character come from Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, widowed at twenty-seven in 1805 and left in charge of the house at a time when a woman running a business was close to unthinkable.

She changed champagne twice. In 1816 she devised the riddling table, the method still used to clear a bottle of its sediment — before her, champagne was cloudy. In 1818 she made the first known blended rosé champagne, adding red wine to the blend rather than tinting it.

The house style has stayed hers: Pinot Noir dominant, built on structure and body rather than delicacy. The yellow label, registered in 1877, has been its signature ever since.

The Brut Vintage is declared only in years the cellar judges worthy, and unlike the Yellow Label it carries no reserve wines — it is the season, undiluted, from a small selection of the house’s best crus.

2015 was warm and dry in Champagne, a solar year that gave ripe, broad-shouldered wines. It suits a house built on Pinot Noir.

Ripe stone fruit, brioche and hazelnut with a hint of spice; broad and structured on the palate, carried by a fine mousse, closing saline. Drinking well now, with a decade in hand.