Produced only in the very best vintages and in tiny quantities, Gosset Celebris, the house’s top wine, is extraordinary, says Neil Beckett—just don’t call it a prestige cuvée.
I should have known better. I was looking forward to the launch of the latest release of Gosset’s prestige cuvée. But it was even more exciting than that, as Gosset’s brilliant chef de cave Odilon de Varine gently chided and patiently reminded me: “Celebris is not a prestige cuvée—it’s an exceptional wine.” He always chooses his words carefully, and those were certainly appropriate. Exceptional not least because the 2012 Celebris is only the ninth Vintage release in the 35 years since the inaugural 1988, (see WFW 73, pp.84–87, for a review of the seven Vintage blanc, three Vintage rosé, and one Multi-Vintage blanc de blancs released up to that time, and WFW 78, p.60, for a preview of the 2012 Celebris Blanc de Blancs). But Gosset as a house is exceptional, too. It has always liked to do things differently, originally, as it has done ever since it was founded, by 1584 at the latest, making it the oldest wine house in Champagne.
If Gosset is very clear about what Celebris is not, it is, happily, equally clear about what it is: “the quintessence of the Gosset style […] its ultimate expression,” like the best of both Non-Vintage [Grande Réserve] and Vintage [Grand Millésime] together, as global business director Bertrand Verduzier explained, its avowed essential qualities being “freshness, structure, depth, and
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
