Each Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage tells a story of a particular year. In the case of the Grand Vintage 2013 and Grand Vintage Rosé 2013, the Maison’s 75^th Champagne and 44^th rosé, it goes a little like this.

The year is 2013, and a cold and wet winter in Champagne has melted into a cool spring. For Moët & Chandon, it means that the ripening of grapes is pushed out past an unusually hot summer for the wine-growing region. Wine growers are instead forced to break a decade-long trend for early harvests. But in this particular case, the trend-bucking pays off.

By the time these two wines are born, all of Champagne has turned gold. Vines are bronzed and brown, and the hills are glowing orange. And so, to the delight of fizz lovers the world over, another great Champagne and rosé are born.

Part chardonnay, part pinot noir and part meunier, the Grand Vintage 2013 is a light golden yellow, with delicate bubbles. It tastes like autumn – think honey, toasted nuts and nougat. Its warm flavour profile makes it the perfect counterpoint for hearty dishes, like a spiced-up salmon and fennel. It would also work just as well with a buttery steak in a big rich sauce.

But the Grand Vintage 2013 finishes with a hint of fresh grapefruit, which also makes it delicious teamed with chocolate and other bitter flavour profiles offset by the citrus. Food for thought when you have a hankering for something sweet and cocoa-filled.

Rosé lovers are well looked after with the Grand Vintage Rosé 2013. It’s teeming with spicy fruitiness – think raspberries, pomegranate, dark chocolate and cinnamon – with generous, elegant aromas. A flute of the bubbly could beautifully cut through a warming winter curry just as well as a light, lip-tingling larb. Equally, it would offer welcome balance to a zingy veg-forward salad.

We suggest thinking of the food-and-wine pairing possibilities with these new historical vintages as the best kind of choose-your-own adventure.