At a recent Philipponnat dinner at Mountain, where guests feasted on all manner of good things, including cured beef, raw scallop & monkfish, fresh langoustines, wild mushrooms, brill and Tamworth collar chops – a typically brilliant Mountain feast – we poured seven vintages of Clos des Goisses stretching back to the wonderfully complex and complete L.V.1996.

To say each vintage was different is to underplay the individuality that each passing year brings to this cuvee. Constants are a sense of presence, a stature, and the ability to go so well with food; this is the DNA of this great steep south-facing Clos. But looked at side by side, these are wines of immense personality and charisma, each with a story to tell.

We opened with a very first look at the 2016, which will be released in September – a very classy release in the making, bright and ripe but nimble too, something you will definitely want in the cellar in a decades time. Watch this space for more on this release.

The 2015 & 2014 split the room. The depth, breadth and richness of 2015 was a standout for some, while the 2014 offered a cool minerality and focus that others could not resist.

A pairing of 2009 and 2008 was probably dominated by the sheer intensity and brilliance of the 2008, a reference point Clos des Goisses, and one that remains youthful at seventeen, but for many, it was the glass of 2009 that was emptied first. Make of that what you will!

We finished with a pair of Long Vieillissement bottlings, 2000 and 1996 – each disgorged after more than twenty years sur lie. Another pair that completely split the room, they made for a brilliant finalé; the 2000 absolute harmony and balance, a very graceful Goisses at the very start of what appears to be a long smooth ageing curve; the 1996 offering more complexity but also more edge, a wine drifting into a new cycle of its life, with autumnal tones just starting to awaken.

Obviously Clos des Goisses stands apart, but truth be told, the entire Philipponnat stable improves with age. To view a list of all the Philipponnat we have currently available by the bottle.