Gosset 21 Ans de Cave a Minima Extra Brut is the oldest and rarest wine in the house’s Compte d’Âge range so far. Neil Beckett reports.
Some age gracefully. Among them, happily, is Gosset Champagne, which applies equally to the maison—“the oldest wine house in Champagne” (1584)—its wines, and its maverick and spirited chef de cave Odilon de Varine, who combines to excellent effect creative curiosity, even impishness, and high seriousness. But with age may also come not only experience, expertise, and savoir-faire, but confidence, independence, and savoir-vivre—a readiness to be rid of the restrictions of convention and tradition; real rather than received wisdom.
It was in this free spirit—liberated and sustained by the Cointreau family, which has owned the house for the past three decades—that its distinguished, long-serving chef de cave Jean-Pierre Mareigner and his successor de Varine created and developed the Compte d’Âge series of exceptional Non-Vintage blends given extended maturation on their lees then disgorged and released after a specified minimum time in the cellar. The series is now well established, if teasingly and typically unpredictable in its evolution, following the inaugural 15 Ans de Cave a Minima (1998 base, 5,000 bottles, released in 2016, see WFW 52, p.69), the 12 Ans de Cave a Minima (2006 base, 12,000 bottles, released in 2020, see WFW 69, pp.58–59), and the 12 Ans de Cave a Minima Rosé (2006 base, 7,000 bottles, released in 2023, see WFW 81, p.68).
All of these (the 2015 now in even more exciting magnum format) are still drinking superbly, as was demonstrated by Thibaut Le Mailloux, Gosset’s marketing and communications director, and Richard Nunn, managing director of Gosset’s UK distributor Louis Latour Agencies, over a lunch in London this fall. But those wines were followed by the latest release in the series, which is the most special so far—the 21 Ans de Cave a Minima Extra Brut. The base vintage here is the 2000, with fruit sourced from across the region, including grands crus Ambonnay, Avize, Aÿ, Bouzy, Cramant, and Verzenay, as well as premiers crus Avenay-Val-d’Or, Chigny-les-Roses, Cuis, Trépail, Vertus, and Villers-Marmery. As for the other releases in the series, it saw no malolactic fermentation and no wood—among the guarantors of Gosset’s pure, racé, but richly vinous style—and the proportion of reserve wines is very low (only 4%) to keep the desired freshness. The reserve wines, likened by the house to “spices,” are stored not by village, grape variety, or vintage, but rather by style and the qualities they will add to final blend—a more artisanal, aesthetic palette for the art of assemblage of which de Varine and now his fellow cellar master Gabrielle Malagu are among the region’s most skillful and successful practitioners. Devotees of these exceptional, gastronomic wines should seek this out soon, because it is also extremely rare: only 1,200 precious bottles (RRP $440 / £285).
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Tasting
Pavyllon, London; September 24, 2024
Gosset 21 Ans de Cave a Minima Extra Brut
(57% Chardonnay, 43% Pinot Noir; cellared 2001; dosage 3g/l)
Welsh gold, a rich luster, with a slow but steady flow of fine bubbles, which may now fade gradually, the more fully to reveal the glory of the mature wine, which is always their primary role at Gosset. Aromatically, here on the immediately inviting, instantly winning nose there is the perfect balance and tension that Odilon de Varine always wants to strike—neither “oxidative” nor “reductive”; and as far as one can (or might want to) separate the seamlessly woven scented strands: quince, pristine white mushroom, and a gentle, rising smokiness. After a good half-hour in the glass, an even more intensely savory, yeasty intrigue, with a veal-stock meatiness and sweetness, but also exotic floral elegance and fragrant lift. Wondrous complexity and harmony on the mellow, multilayered, richly silky palate, but still with more than enough surface tension for there to be stimulating vibrancy, too, the sense of freshness heightened by the beautifully judged dosage, as well as by a gentle phenolic squeeze and subtle bitter twist on the fabulously persistent finish. A wine at which to marvel and to savor on its own or as a grand gastronomic partner. (It was brilliantly paired with roasted duck magret and marinated daikon radishes at our lunch.) | 97–98
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Gosset 15 Ans de Cave a Minima Brut (magnum)(60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir;
cellared 1999; dosage 7g/l)
Still a miraculously pale, gleaming gold, with a super-fine mousse. Gloriously mature but still fresh and vigorous on the nose, which is much more iodé, marine, and mineral than the 21 Ans, with even more intense white and yellow fruit and only the first faint whiff of clean white mushroom. Great elegance, freshness, power, and roundness on the palate, but also a floating quality, which has less to do with any fleeting levity from the mousse than with the perfect harmony of the wine. The best bottles of this wine on release struck me as already having “perfect harmony yet seemingly endless vitality”—qualities that are even more evident eight years on from magnum, where the benefits of the larger format are clear. Sensational with our steamed Comté cheese soufflé and watercress coulis monté, with eel butter. | 95–96
