Louis Latour Agencies

Odilon de Varine & his favourite crus

13 August 2018

Odilon de Varine is the Chef de Cave at Champagne Gosset and has been at Gosset since 2006. He is now the custodian of the House’s characteristic style. Winemaking at Gosset is as simple as possible to protect the individual characteristics of each vineyard and cru.

Gosset approach the selection of wines in a similar way to Burgundy, by which the location within crus is important too. Cramant is a big Cru with several different slopes/aspects and so Odilon selects grapes from the central part, east of the village on steep hillside. Gosset have many small vats and therefore are able to vinify each parcel individually.

The make-up of Gosset’s wines varies from vintage to vintage depending on the wines. Odilon will taste and blend blind; this ensures he is not influenced by the reputations of the different crus and ensures everything revolves around taste.

In Gosset’s Grand Blanc de Blancs, the wines come mainly from Cote de Blancs but Gosset also use whites from the Montagne de Reims which is best known for Pinot Noir crus. These wines have a completely different structure/salinity and contribute to the Gosset style.

The new cuvee in the clear bottle is a base wine from 2013 base wine and is made up of around a dozen crus at its heart with others added for ‘seasoning’. These include Mesnil sur Oger, Oger, Azive and Cramant. Two of Odilon’s favourite crus are Trepail and Villiers-Marmery. These are used to add character to the blend, they only make up around 5-7% of each the wine but have a big impact. They bring length and crisp structure to the blend.

Grand Blanc de Noirs was initially a trial but when the wine was tasted three years ago they decided to release it as a limited edition cuvee. This wine is comprised of the Grand Crus Ambonnay, Aÿ and Verzy; together with the Premier Crus of Chigny les Roses, Tauxières, Avenay.