Lovely, bright, clear golden colour with greenish tints and amber flecks. On the nose lots of freshness, fullness and subtlety with fragrant, delicate yet pungent notes of spring flowers such as hawthorn, privet, morning jasmine and orange blossom and also ripe summer fruit scents: vine peach, ripe pear, dried apricot and quince.
In the mouth flowing, pure and elegant. The rich, full taste seems to alternate between the lacy delicate influence of Chardonnay and the strength of the Pinot Noir. One only has to take the tiniest sip to appreciate the aromatic qualities of a champagne which needs no primping with sweetening “liqueur d’expédition”. The taste is beautifully balanced with a round, lively, complex, diverse flavour and a smooth sparkle. This is a champagne that successfully combines the delicious flavour of frangipani and melted butter, toasted almonds and poached pear, quince jelly and apricot jam, lemon verbena tea and vanilla, toasted bread and mocha coffee, fudge and amber rum.
Wonderfully fresh, amazingly intense and long on the finish. The finish shows just the right amount of fruit with engaging scents of candied lemon zest and raisiny toasted brioche for a sensational finale.
Grape Variety:
48% Chardonnay, 36% Pinot Noir
Dosage – 3.5 g/l
Pairing with food:
Ideal as a first course with cool, osciotre or sevruga caviar that melts on the tongue served with soft blinis topped with a smidgen of crème fraiche, or with finely sliced cured Spanish or Italian ham, an assortment of sashimi, sushi and teriyaki, with top-grade fish either oven-baked wrapped in foil, a la plancha or steamed. Try it with roasted farmhouse poultry, with soft or mature goat cheese or with more or less sophisticated desserts such as vanilla-roasted pineapple, gingerbread ice-cream or a chestnut bavarois with bits of candied chestnut, coffee-spiked crème anglaise, or even a tropical fruit salad with hibiscus syrup and ginger.
Background Information:
Champagne Gosset is the oldest wine house in Champagne established in Ay in 1584 and is owned by the Cointreau family. The Cointreaus also own Gosset’s sister company, Cognac Frapin, and Jean Pierre is currently C.E.O of both companies. They bought Gosset in 1993 when Albert Gosset of the original Gosset family died. The Cointreaus hold strong the belief that Gosset is a family run business and maintain the hands on approach that was started by the original Gosset family.
Situated in the tiny Grand Cru village of Aÿ, 5 kilometres north of Epernay, Gosset has some rather famous neighbours, including Bollinger. However, production is much below that of the larger houses and would struggle to reach the number of bottles produced by Krug in a year. Yearly production has now reached almost 1.3 million bottles. All Gosset champagnes are ‘recently disgorged’ and the house does not undertake malolactic fermentation. This preserves acidity which in turn keeps the wine fresh for much longer. Bottles are removed from one part of the cellar to another every six months, and given a vigorous shake in the process. This reinvigorates any live yeast and is only carried out by a few houses.
The jewel in the Gosset Crown has always been the Champagne Gosset Celebris. It is the top cuvee produced by Gosset and is only produced in the best vintages. Launched in the UK in April 2007.
The Gosset style is very creamy, dry but not acidic, full, biscuity and yeasty. All the cuvees have good bottle age. The champagnes are excellent by themselves or with food.
