Champagne Vincent Couche, “Sensation” Dégorgement Tardif 1999

As we’ve all come to learn, Vincent Couche’s transcendent 1999 Champagne offers are bittersweet carrot-and-stick opportunities that come and go in an instant, leaving a few jubilant and everyone else empty-handed and fuming. But as long as he keeps quietly releasing them in small waves each year, we’ll keep ravenously pouncing until the end of time.We first offered this long-aged, biodynamic rarity in 2019, when it was debuted to the public for the very first time. Meaning, Vincent Couche, a man of calculated genius and/or insanity, waited nearly two decades before disgorging and selling his first bottle. It was among the most texturally profound, vibrant, and fully mature vintage bottlings I’ve ever had the honor of tasting; it sold out in a single day with only 68 people emerging victorious. Then, last year, we were surprised with a smaller second wave, one that vanished inside of 70 minutes with just 45 people lucking out. Now, yet another batch has slipped into America, and for me,