Odilon de Varine is a great thinker; his approach at Gosset has sometimes verged on the contrarian, sometimes stayed close to the mainstream, but its collective fruits make for an inspiring series of wines. The bedrocks of the Grande Réserve and the Grand Millésime are bolstered in particular by the Celebris series and the De Minima family, the latter offered pragmatically in respect of the alchemy that is cellar-based lees-aging.
The latest member of this august Vintage canon focuses on 2016, one of those Champagne years that does not immediately sound alarm bells (2017) or inspire bursts of joy (2019). 2016 is another in a series of early harvests marked by extreme and, for want of a better word, capricious conditions, which included both frost and mildew early in the season, then drought and sunburn in the dog days of summer. The late August harvest yielded a little less than usual, and the crop has less potential alcohol than the balmy 2015 but also a little more acidity. Riper than 2014, perhaps, but less so than many in the modern context of climate-change-inflected Champagne. Early indications pointed to more success with Pinot Noir than Chardonnay.
It may come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that the 2016 Gosset marks a return to dominance by the white grapes. In 2015, Pinot Noir made up 59%; in 2016, it is back to a more typical 39%. Why so? Cellar master Gabrielle Malagu explains that this flexibility is key to the Gosset
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
