Champagne Tasting- Veuve Clicquot vs. Moët & Chandon — Which is Better

Those are two very different beasts, they're definitely not the same Champagne. Hello bonjour dear wine enthusiasts. Last week we discussed the stories behind the two most famous Champagne houses, the two famous brands and the most popular brands of Champagne in the world, Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot. We looked at some of the technical details about how they are made and a bit of their marketing stories and history as well. Today is the big day, the important day. We're going to be tasting those two Champagnes and I'm going to give you my impressions about them. Are they of different styles or are they essentially the same Champagne or pretty much the same for a slight difference in price? If you haven't watched all the history and all the details behind those two wines, I definitely recommend you check it out right now before watching this or after watching it for more of the background on those wines. But if you're in the market for buying one of those two Champagnes for the holiday season or whenever it is, should you go for Veuve or should you should you go for Moet & Chandon? That's definitely how you pronounce it. Moet & Chandon, not Moet, Moet & Veuve Clicquot is how we say it in French. Let's get tasting, shall we? Starting with Moet & Chandon, the biggest brand of Champagne in the world. We have a, as we expected, delicious color. It looks like a golden, bright, brilliant, vibrant, shiny, nice and shiny, a little bit of orange as we expect from the aging on the leaves. Let's smell. I'm getting some really vibrant smells and aromas of a bright fresh apricot. It's a little bit citrusy as well. Yeah, some lime, some lemon, lemon zest, a little bit of brioche, a little bit of toasty caramel, toasted, roasted hazelnut. It smells really vibrant, fragrant, light, lively, very fruity and lively. So we certainly have a creamy enough texture, but it's very zingy. The acidity is really sharp. Tastes like a lime juice, lemon juice, so really zingy, quite mineral, a bit of crystal of acids on the side of your tongues here. So very fresh, very zingy, creamy enough. It's definitely not aggressive. I like a bit of the smokiness to the background, the roasted hazelnut that gives it a bit of complexity to the finish, and very balanced. Just there's nothing that stands out all that much, but nothing bothers you as well. So extremely, extremely well executed, you know, really balanced. It's like nothing strikes you particularly, but nothing bothers you as well. It's delicious, it's complex, it's somewhat profound, but definitely on the crisper, sharper, fruity side. We saw last week that Veuve Clicquot has a slightly different blend and that they age it a little bit more as well, apparently. So I'm very curious to taste it. I have tasted those champagnes quite a few times obviously, but not necessarily like this, side by side, with you in front of a camera, giving you my first first expressions. The color is very, very similar. It seems to me the Veuve is a little more yellow, a little less golden or amber hues, more yellow, a bit brighter for this particular bottle as well. Let's smell... It jumps out of the glass a little bit less, I would say. So it's definitely more finesse, actually, to the nose. The aromas are less obvious. You have to really sniff them a lot deeper. It's more on the floral side. I am getting maybe more berries as well, a little bit of red berries, but really soft blueberry flavors here. A little bit of the lemon, but it's a riper lemon, I would say. You often find this with the chardonnays, the crisp chardonnays that are not too ripe, are really lemony. When the chardonnay is a bit riper, you get more on the tropical side of things, a bit of slight mango and a bit of richer lychee flavors and aromas, and more on that side here. So more elegance, subtler, much subtler aromas. Definitely, it's easier to appreciate and identify the aromas on Moet than it is on Veuve, but you can smell that the aromas are a bit more delicate in there. It has more finesse. Let's see if it translates on the palate. Wow! So yes, I can already answer this question. Those are two very different beasts. They're definitely not the same champagne. A lot of acidity as well. It's also sharp and crisp to start with. The concentration in acidity in Veuve seems to me a lot higher. You get more of these crystals on the side, so really acid. It tastes like tons of concentration, but it also has a larger body, a creamier texture to surround this acidity. So the balance, overall the equilibrium, the harmony is about similar, but with much more concentration. You can taste how much more concentration in the wine, the acids and the flavors are way more concentrated. The complexity is also higher here. As I was saying, there's a bit less lemon, but there's a bit more apricot, a bit more peach, a little more mango, a little more tropical, fruity flavors as far as the fruits are concerned. So riper, richer, denser, fruitier, sweeter, and it's surrounded by denser spices, more brioche, more butter. It seems there's a bit more phenolics as well. So again, the concentration in phenolics is higher. You get more drying on the finish as well. So it's a bit more of everything, a denser concentration, but also still delivered with more finesse and more harmonies. Give me a minute to think about my conclusion and my verdict, and I'll get back to you. So which one is best? Moët & Chandon or Valve Clicquot? Well, if you ask me, it's actually quite clear. I wasn't expecting such a clear difference and gap in the two styles. Moët & Chandon is certainly a really well-made champagne. It's got all the features that you expect from champagne, the citrus, the lime, the complexity, the balance, the harmony, because obviously they blend those champagnes really, really carefully, and they deliver this consistency of style that we expect from a big champagne house. This is the consistent, enjoyable style that we love and that we expect from Moët. Valve Clicquot to me goes a little bit further, a little bit farther in concentration, in harmony, in creamy texture. I was tasting them just side by side. Again now, Valve Clicquot, I can keep it in my mouth and swirl it in my mouth, and really appreciate it for a very long time because it's creamy, because it's also super interesting that all these different variations and different aromas that I can spend time analyzing in my mouth, and after tasting the harmony is a bit greater, the concentration is a bit greater. It's simply to me a slightly better wine. The price difference to me is definitely justified. Valve Clicquot gives you more, you can taste a little bit less of it, and drink a bit less of it, and spend more time analyzing it. So with drinking less, you actually get more satisfaction. So even if it's a little bit pricier, you have more champagne for your money. That would be my verdict. I would score Moët & Chandon an 89 out of 100. It's a really good, excellent champagne, but it doesn't go the surprise, doesn't give you the surprise, the excitement of a champagne that has something truly unique. With Valve Clicquot, I would go more around 91, because you go over the 90 bar, because it's really well executed, the concentration is higher, it's going to age a little bit more. So yeah, we have a clear difference here. Not huge, it's not day or night, day and night, or black and white. It's in the same category, but you get a little more with Valve Clicquot. That was it for me today. Hope you enjoyed the video, and I will see you soon in the wonderful world of wine. Cheers! You would notice that I'm using larger glasses, wine glasses, because you can definitely taste the champagne a lot better, all the complexity. It also removes some of the sparkling, the bubbles, so the wine is a little bit less aggressive and foamy on your mouth, so you can actually taste the texture a little better.