Louis Latour Agencies

The Story behind Gosset CELEBRIS vintage Extra Brut

30 June 2018

Champagne Gosset’s CELEBRIS is the pinical of their wine range and a celebration of their best wines; handcrafted in their own distinctive winemaking style. It is an extremely rare cuvée with just three to four thousand bottles made of each edition. In the last 20 years only seven editions have been released; beginning with the 1988 vintage and most recently, the 2007 which arrived in the UK in spring 2018.

CELEBRIS is an elegant and sophisticated wine with an underlying power that makes it ideal for long ageing, which is when the true complexity of the wine develops. Treat this wine like a fine white Burgundy and pair with sea foods like scallops and turbot or perhaps polenta with wild mushrooms and cheese.

CELEBRIS is also a celebration of the houses favourite vineyards with a focus on the Grand Crus. There are 17 Grand Cru vineyards in Champagne and these account for less than 10% of the region’s vineyards. Of the 17 Gosset prefer eight which include Ay and Bouzy for Pinot Noir and Avize and Le Mesnil sur Oger for Chardonnay.

Blending and the expertise of the cellar master are at the heart of all Champagne. Gosset’s Odilon de Varine uses the wines at his disposal like an artist uses a palette of colours; where minute additions of wine can make the difference between a good and a great wine. Non-vintage wines make up the majority of the region’s production and signal each house’s wine making style whereas a single vintage, like Gosset CELEBRIS, is a snapshot of a moment in time and reflects the individual growing season.

Gosset CELEBRIS will be aged in the house’s deep cellars for more than 10 years so the wines selected for the blend must be capable of long ageing and have the potential to develop and mature in the bottle. A special characteristic at Gosset is their maintenance of the natural acidity in their wines.  This practice gives their wines long ageing potential, vibrancy and a racy freshness even when they are many years old and is one of the keys of the Gosset CELEBRIS style.