New Release: Champagne – Clos des Goisses 2016, Juste Rosé 2015 and L.V. 2000

With a penchant for producing great wines in vintages where other sites suffer, Champagne Philipponnat’s iconic Clos des Goisses is a collector’s dream. Such is the inherent quality of this south facing that fully mature vintages from the late fifties through the eighties are invariably thrilling, and they hailed from an era when the young wines would have been far less beautiful than today. The wines can be powerful in youth yet they always retain a brightness and a freshness. And it is this combination which makes such exceptional candidates for aging and such brilliant partners to food. It is, at the end of the day, an exceptional wine more than an exceptional CHAMPAGNE.

The 2016 vintage was a tale of two halves. A series of frosts reduced yields at the tail end of April and thereafter a cool and rather wet summer ensued until August, when the sun came out and allowed ripening to progress easily and dynamically. “Aout fait le mout” as they say, and when the grapes were finally picked in mid-September, the potential for high quality was obvious, particularly in finest Pinot Noir plots.

With its steep south facing aspect, Clos des Goisses seldom fails to achieve impressive ripeness. In ‘16 Goisses offers a crystalline beauty allied to a sense of weightless intensity, hitting the pallet like a high harmony and tapering off to a long finish. After nine years sur lie it is extremely easy enjoy it today, and yet it will also amply reward those with patience. It should be very beautiful with age.

Also released today is the fantastic Juste Rosé 2015. Always a wine of great fineness married to haunting fruit impression (the red comes from vineyards at the top of Clos des Goisses ); the 2015 combines the depth of the vintage with an almost Burgundian sense of Pinot Noir fruit. A joyous example of the greatness of truly gastronomic rosé champagne.

The final star in this constellation of releases is a wine that marks the very beginning of Charles Philipponnat’s tenure at his eponymous family Domaine: Long Vieillissement (L.V.) 2000. These are very rare, released in editions of just a few hundred bottles a time, and disgorged after 25 years sur lie in Philipponnats deep cellars. It offers stunning combination of maturity and freshness that can only come from combining exceptional initial champagne, with patience. A wine for the table, this will be a shape shifting beauty to follow right down to the very last drop of the bottle.