WINSTON CHURCHILL LOVED his Champagne. We know from the memoirs of Alonzo Fields that it was part of his daily routine. The former White House chief butler recalled how, on the first morning of a wartime visit, he was summoned to the bedroom of the then-British prime minister, where he was firmly told: "Now, Fields, we had a lovely dinner last night but I have a few orders for you. We want to leave here as friends, right?... I must have a tumbler of sherry in my room before breakfast, a couple of glasses of scotch and soda before lunch and French Champagne and 90-year-old brandy before I go to sleep at night."

Churchill's capacity for alcohol is well-documented but when it came to Champagne his name was immortalized by the Epernay family firm Pol Roger . In 1945, at the British ambassador's home in Paris, where 1928 Pol Roger was served in celebration of the liberation of France, he met Odette Pol-Roger and struck up a lifelong friendship.

Each year on his birthday a case of Pol Roger would arrive at Chartwell, his home in Kent. And when he died in 1965 Pol Roger placed a black border around the labels of its white-foil Champagne bound for England.

In 1984 the house launched a prestige cuvée named after the man himself. Made up primarily of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, in a style that suited Churchill's palate, the exact blend has never been revealed, on a promise to the family.

The 2002 has just been released and I was fortunate enough to attend the first tasting at 44 Avenue de Champagne in Epernay—described by Churchill as "the most drinkable address in the world"—in the presence of Churchill's great-grandson Randolph, Pol Roger chairman Laurent d'Harcourt and the company's two senior family members, Christian Pol-Roger and Christian de Billy. The wine itself is generous, with lively aromas of citrus fruits and the house's trademark biscuit, yeasty style.