Clos des Goisses, Brut, 2009

The flavour profile of the 2009 is wonderfully pure - the vintage was one of the healthiest harvests on record – while structurally this is as regal as you’d expect from a great Clos des Goisses. It is impeccably balanced. The pure chalk soils seems particularly present in the 2009, bringing control and freshness to the keenly rendered flavours of red and black berry fruit. With time these should gently evolve into cacao, orange, chocolate - ripe flavours but without the intrusion of botrytis or excessive glycerol. Full and powerful but with an ever present spine of acidity and minerality, the wine reminds Charles Philipponnat of their 1989; a ripe, sunny vintage with little ‘fat’ – though of course the 2009 will have benefited from far more precise winemaking. “Over the past 18 years we’ve made many improvements to our winemaking process. As a result the wines we are making these days are more precise, they have more freshness and more pixels than they used to have in the past. And of course, 2009 is a ripe vintage but it also has surprising freshness. More than the 1989 had at the time. We’ve achieved this by cutting out any oxidation in the winemaking, by using smaller casks, using lower dosage, systematising the non-malo-lactic character – all elements that help to preserve the freshness and purity inherently found our steep, south facing pure chalk terroir.” Charles Philipponnat.