Champagne Champagne Virginie T.

Virginie T may sound anonymous, but that is because Virginie Taittinger can’t exactly use her own name for her new venture – so she has done the next best thing. With 160 years of family history, she represents a double Champagne legacy as the daughter of Claude Taittinger, CEO of TAITTINGER for 46 years, and Catherine de Suarez d’Aulan, whose family owned PIPER-HEIDSIECK until 1988 – Virginie was clearly genetically programmed to become a grande dame of Champagne.

Having worked alongside her father at Taittinger for more than 20 years, Virginie wanted to make Champagnes where each cuvée was independent of a previous one, to be a creator rather than a follower of recipes. It has been a slow-burn with wines launched individually over the past fifteen years; their first release was the 2008 vintage in 2015, after six years of ageing. Her son, Ferdinand, joined the company in 2015 – the dynasty is set.

We went to see them in April 2023, tasting the whole range in the glorious Sillery Château which Virginie is restoring, and it was an instant coup de foudre – these are spectacular Champagnes, beautifully made, and in a completely different style to our existing Champagnes from Chauvet and Legras, complementing them perfectly. They buy the majority of their grapes through a couple of long-term contracts and their aim is to produce only brilliant Champagne, making less if they don’t like the vintage or more when they do. They have a réserve perpetuelle to ensure that their Brut retains a family likeness, but their other wines are all stand-alone cuvées, aimed at reflecting their vintage year and style.

Click here for current availability or call us on 01353 721 999. For marketing queries, please contact Laura Taylor at laura@privatecellar.co.uk