The arrival of Charles Philipponnat in 2000 appears to have resulted in a turn in Champagne Philipponnat’s fortunes. Not only does their flagship wine, Clos de Goisses, continue to get rave reviews, and rightly so as this is widely acknowledge as one of the great single vineyards in Champagne, but also the quality and consistency of the rest of their range has never been higher. Today Philipponnat grows 20 hectares of Premier and Grand Cru vineyards in the outstanding communes of Ay, Mareuil and Avenay. Pinot Noir is king here and represents two thirds of their plantings. The winery is located just a stones through away from the iconic Clos de Goisses vineyard above the historic 18th century cellars of Chateau de Mareuil, where bottles are still aged and riddled manually (including all the vintage cuvees). A proportion of their wines are vinified and aged in oak barrels and malolactic fermentations are generally avoided. Ageing sur lie runs from three to eleven years and dosage levels are low.
Stylistically, this is a house whose focus is Pinot Noir. The house character lies in harnessing the power and fruit of great Pinot Noir without sacrificing freshness or relying on oxidative winemaking techniques to bring complexity. Bright aromatic complexity (a particular characteristic of Pinot Noir) marks a common thread, while structure is found in freshness and minerality.
For the Royale Réserve cuvées, great care is lavished on the quality of the reserve wines and in recent years, Charles has introduced a second perpetual reserve with a greater proportion of old reserve wines adding new layers of complexity and finesse to the finished wines. Alongside these Brut and Non-Dosé cuvees sits one of Champagne’s most characterful and food friendly Rosés, not such a surprise when one considers that the still red wine used in its blend comes from the upper sections of Clos des Goisses.
The Blanc de Noirs cuvee marks the first of the vintage wines Philipponnat produce and in only two vintages it has cemented itself as a hugely impressive addition to the range. Primarily from great Pinot Noir vineyards in and around Mareuil and Ay, the blend can include up to six villages that mix North and South exposures. Fermentation is carried out in oak barrels, without malolactic fermentation, and vats with partial malolactic fermentation. Disgorgement happens after 7 years sur lie. The resulting Champagne is rich but bright, powerful, generous but also chiselled.
The first of the prestige cuvées is the exceptional Cuvée 1522, a wine produced exclusively from Grand Cru terroirs. It is blended exclusively from the house’s most outstanding vineyards, in particular the historic plots at Le Leon in Ay, complemented by Chardonnay from Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. It offers complexity and a rich dry brilliance matched to striking minerality in a remarkably complete wine that is dosed at just 4 g/l and aged for 8 years sur lie before disgorgement. That it doesn’t represent the finest wine in this line up is only down to the presence of the mighty Clos des Goisses vineyard.
Described as “one of the true icons of Champagne” and as “consistently one of the world's foremost wines”, the Clos des Goisses vineyard is probably as unique as the wine it yields. Purchased in 1935 and overlooking the river Marne, its dizzying incline of between 30 and 45 degrees makes it one of the steepest in the region, helping create a completely individual microclimate that can be up to three degrees warmer than the rest of Champagne. This means that even in cool vintages, the wines have atypical power, depth and texture, coupled to a wonderfully pure and intense mineral backbone. In short, these are exhilarating and age-worthy wines of the very highest order.
The noise surrounding single vineyard Champagnes has never been louder – a trend driven initially (and seemingly paradoxically) by the larger houses, then more recently by the growers. One of the original single vineyard sites, if not actually the first (that honour goes to Clos du Mesnil, originally a grower parcel before its acquisition by the house of Krug), was Clos des Goisses, the jewel in the impressive Philipponnat stable and one of Champagne’s very finest vineyards. The first known vintage of this great site was 1935, and in the intervening years this special plot has become known for producing powerful and long-lived champagnes that possess a unique combination of ripeness and structure.
The first question of any single vineyard is whether the production is consistently good enough, or better, than what might be achieved through blending. Not all vineyards have the magic touch that Goisses possesses. That it is a special vineyard is in no doubt. As Tom Stevenson reported in World of Fine Wine issue 49 - “In my experience of watching how individual vineyards perform over 35 vintages, the two that stand out in this respect are Clos des Goisses and Clos du Mesnil, but for completely different reasons. It is the unique topography of Clos des Goisses (which always allows some parcels to excel) – in conjunction with its high active lime content (30 percent compared to 25 percent throughout the rest of Mareuil-sur-Ay) and significantly warmer microclimate (2.7 ° F higher mean temperature during the growing season) – that endows this vineyard with the intrinsic ability to produce something special”
When Richard Juhlin compiled his list of the 50 best late disgorged Champagnes for ‘The World of Fine Wine’ a staggering 10 places were filled by Philipponnat Clos des Goisses. At number two in the chart was the `55 with 99 points. Clos des Goisses also took 6th with 98 points, 11th, 14th, 17th (all 97 points) 27th, 28th (96) 41st, 42nd (95) and 50th (94) – quite respectable for a little known house! But, amongst aficionados, Philipponnat is a very big name with a formidable reputation for aging into some of the most complex and aristocratic wines of the region.
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