Christian Gosset - Champagne Grand Cru 'Brut A02' NV

Champagne Christian Gosset is a brand new project by one of the most experienced winemakers and family names synonymous with quality in the village of Aÿ in the Vallée de la Marne. Christian is focused on exalting the great terroirs for pinot noir from Aÿ, which has been home to the Gosset family for over 500 years. Pierre Gosset was the first recorded winemaker of the family tree in 1584. Descendants Gabriel Gosset and his wife Andrée Brabant produced the first bottles of their eponymous Gosset-Brabant Champagne in the 1930’s. Their son Jean Gosset and his wife further developed the domain after WWII, which was in turn passed onto their children, brothers Michel and Christian, who made wine as a team until 2015. 

The next chapter for Christian Gosset began in 2015 after 35 years of making wine at Champagne Gosset-Brabant with his brother. In 2015, they separated and, at the age of 50, Christian Gosset decided to change his life by creating a personal project based around the terroir of his village. From his five hectares of vineyards in the Grand Cru villages of Aÿ and Chouilly, as well as the Premiers Crus of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Dizy and Avenay-Val-d’Or, he crafts a range of terroir-expressive Champagnes focused on absolute quality, above all. His first harvest took place in 2016 and his wines were made in the cellar of his friend and colleague, the oenologist Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy. Christian, whose creative energy is infectious, considers himself a young vigneron with 35 years of experience, as he is just beginning to define the wines he always dreamed of.

Each plot is hand-picked and vinified separately in enamel-lined vats. Winemaking is low-impact and low-intervention, with the pressing done at his neighbor Geoffroy’s winery in a traditional Coquard basket press. The coeur de cuvée arrives by gravity into Christian Gosset’s cellar, directly into the enamel-lined vinification vats, where it undergoes a spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts. As he says, “let the wines ferment quietly, and then we meet again in July for the bottling.” For the Brut Reserve, he makes his decisions as late as possible for the assemblage and proportion of reserve wine, around the following June, before bottling and secondary fermentation. The wines are aged in his cellar for a minimum of three years on the lees, regardless of the vintage. The naming standards for his non-vintage Brut reflect his organized and pragmatic approach—A01, his first assemblage, contained base wine from 2016.

“Without the red-wine addition that boosts the flavors of A03, this parallel wine emphasizes the broad richness of a blanc de noirs (it’s 85 percent pinot noir from Aÿ). Smoky and toasty, this is a Champagne built for food.” - 90 Points, Wine & Spirits

Producer: Christian Gosset

Country: France

Region: Champagne 

Varietal: Chardonnay Pino Noir

Appellation: Champagne Grand Cru

Vintage: NV

Size: 750ml