2011 was a year of economic extremes, but also weather extremes - even in the Champagne region. Dominique Demarville, Chef de Caves of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, tells HT about the harvest:

‘’It’s been a very challenging year, yet exciting too. The yield is good and nature has provided us with healthy grapes, especially the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Pinot Meunier in some areas was damaged by botrytis but the permitted yield enabled us to select the healthy grapes. The balance looks great, reminiscent of the 2004, 2000, 1998 and 1982.  The quality of this harvest will enable us to produce top quality non vintage and increase our reserve wines collection. For the Vintage or La Grande Dame, we will wait until March or April 2012, after the creation of the Yellow Label blend.”

Dominique explains how Yellow Label is made on HospitalityToday.TV