The Wine AdvocateRP 96Reviewed by:Kristaps KarklinsRelease Price:NADrink Date:2024 - 2036The latest NV Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru V.O. (Version Originale) is based on the 2018 vintage with some 40% reserve wines from 2017 and 2016 and was disgorged in July 2024 without dosage. This is another success, bursting from the glass with aromas of dried flowers, walnut, and fig. It’s sourced from top of the slopes in Avize and Cramant, sites that are cooler and windier than those that inform the Initial, which helps preserve acidity better than the lower-altitude vineyards. The yields here are low, and the berries are small, resulting in high concentration. With hard chalk very close to the surface, it’s a flamboyant wine with tensile personality, laden with incisive acids, complemented by a pinpoint mousse and concluding with a long, bone-dry finish. Guillaume observes that the “Initial is more horizontal, while V.O. is more vertical,” and I agree.
The leading light of a generation that initiated the contemporary grower Champagne movement some 40 years ago and transformed the region, Anselme Selosse has passed on the baton to his son, Guillaume, who has been ably presiding over this Avize reference point since 2020. The estate is blessed with more than eight hectares of vines across Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Ambonnay. While there are many talented young vignerons and many from their fathers' generation, it is rare for a domaine to boast such brilliant personalities from both. Their wines, characterized by oxidative, biologically aged traits, along with concentration, flavor intensity and ample structuring extract, consistently stand out in blind tastings. This is because they combine the kaleidoscopic complexity that, until Selosse, was only found in mature Champagne, with the vibrant chalkiness and structure of a young wine. However, this is a domaine that constantly questions itself—who knows what Selosse will achieve next?
Anselme Selosse may have officially retired, but his influence will continue to shape Champagne for many years to come. Today, a thirsty world clamors for Selosse’s bottles, and Selosse is rightly credited with a leading role in transforming contemporary Champagne. Indeed, Selosse looms so large in the region that he sometimes casts a shadow over other producers. Phrases such as “worked with Selosse” or “inspired by Selosse” are used routinely, though they hardly do justice to the originality of the diverse diaspora of growers touched by his influence.
Anselme Selosse was not the first grower, but he was the first in Champagne to explicitly draw inspiration from Burgundy, where he studied at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune between 1969 and 1973, before taking over the estate in 1974 from his father, Jacques. In Champagne, Selosse observed that the market placed a premium on vintage, whereas in Burgundy, it was the wine’s origin that had the biggest impact. It was Selosse's career-long emphasis on quality over quantity and site over vintage, inspired by his time in Burgundy, that led him to work his soils, reduce yields (a reversal of the prevailing trend in Champagne at the time) and attempt to produce terroir-driven Champagnes—a path soon followed by others. At the time, these were independent initiatives, and these growers weren’t aware of each other’s work; it is only retrospectively that these pioneers have been identified as the initiators of a movement.
From 1990 to 1996, the principles of organic farming were applied. Then, starting in 1996, the focus shifted to biodynamics. However, from 2002 onward, he distanced himself from strict biodynamic practices, defying the usual codes and believing that “one should not impose ourselves on nature.”
Selosse was also an outlier, harvesting later than most other producers in Champagne in pursuit of fully mature fruit that will not require supplemental sugar through chaptalization. In the cellar, his winemaking was Burgundian from the beginning, with fermentation mainly in 228-liter barrels from Tonnellerie de Mercurey and François Frères, with about 20% renewed each year (today, barrels are sourced from various suppliers: Mercurey, François Frère, Cavin, Atelier centre France, Dussiaux, Tarransaud and Radoux). When it coms to alcoholic fermentation, Selosse prefers indigenous yeasts and has isolated proprietary yeast selections from his cellar. He doesn't encourage or discourage malolactic fermentation, but for “prise de mousse” (the step that gives the wine its effervescence), selected yeasts from Champagne are used. The resulting wines were always vinous and concentrated, with their “Burgundian” style making a strong impression on visitors to his cellars.
From his perspective, biological aging and controlled oxidation become ways to “burn away” the organic matter, effacing the ephemeral influence of vintage and leaving behind only the terroir-derived mineral residue that interests him. These techniques drew inspiration not from Burgundy, but rather from an engagement with the wines of Spain, especially the biological maturation of Jerez and the long élevage of Rioja—an interest that began when Selosse first visited the Iberian Peninsula in 1972. And since he is primarily focused on the mineral aspects rather than the organic, he prioritizes texture over aroma.
On a technical level, Selosse leaves eight to 10 liters of headspace in his barrels and tops them up little by little as fermentation subsides. At the end of November or early in December, they're fully topped up and thenceforth left alone. Since his cellar, thanks to fans, remains cooler than the outside environment but warms and cools following its fluctuations, a layer of flor develops in spring as the cellar warms. Thereafter, Selosse and his team smell the barrels: any that are oxidative are stirred, reintroducing the heavy lees into suspension to return the wine to a more reductive state, and any that are reduced, Selosse agitates with the same dodine to expel dissolved carbon dioxide. Throughout the élevage, the barrels's bungs are only loosely closed, as Selosse says he wants the wines to breathe. Reserve wines are stored in a perpetual reserve system, offering an average of vintage variation, whereas his cuvée Substance is drawn from a true solera established in 1986, intended to efface vintage variation entirely.
Champagnes produced from vins clairs such as these display a unique aromatic range and intensely sapid aromas, defined by a complex patina derived from barrel fermentation (10 months of sur lie maturation), minimal sulfites (added only at the press, if at all), biological aging and ripe fruit. “I have no interest in making Champagne that appeals to everyone,” Selosse admits, and his intensely characterful wines do divide opinion. In some cuvées and disgorgements, oxidative nuances sometimes make an appearance in this complex mélange, but it isn’t possible to say where one influence ends and another begins.
The range begins with two of domaine’s youngest wines: Initial and V.O. (Version Originale). Both are blends from three vintages, mostly from Avize and Cramant. Initial comes from parcels less rich in clay, with more fragmented chalk bedrock, while the cooler and windier higher-altitude parcels produce Version Originale. Guillaume notes that “Initial is more horizontal, while V.O. is more vertical,” and it’s easy to tell. The flamboyant Rosé is based on the same source as Initial—lower-altitude slopes mostly in Avize and Cramant—and is finished with a small percentage of Pinot Noir, sourced from the Egly-Ouriet in Ambonnay.
The extraordinary lineup of single-vineyard Champagnes, launched in 2010, represents the principal villages where the domaine holds vineyards. Each wine is built on a perpetual blend (initiated in 1994 for La Côte Faron, 2003 for Les Carelles, 2005 for Sous le Mont and 2002 for the rest), complemented by about 60% of the base vintage. Six lieux-dits, each with a distinct identity:• Chemin de Châlons derives from a south-facing site in Cramant, near the border of Avize. It was planted around 1938 and produces the most ample of the three blanc de blancs.• Les Chantereines originates from a vineyard planted between 1922 and 1929 at the bottom of the slope, where there is more limestone than clay. It delivers a wine with incredible flavor concentration and sapid nuance.• The most strikingly saline and tensile of the three blanc de blancs is Les Carelles from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, produced from two plots pressed together, with the smallest plot facing south and largest facing east.• The elegantly muscular Le Bout du Clos, from two south-facing plots within the same lieu-dit in Ambonnay, is one of the more generously structured wines, composed of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, picked and pressed together.• In contrast, the lightest of the Pinot Noir-based lieux-dits is Sous le Mont, an east-facing site in Mareuil-sur-Ay. This wine that is nearly a rosé in appearance and, as far as the aromatic range is concerned, is the least “Selosse-like” compared to the other lieux-dits.• The most perfumed and multilayered is La Côte Faron, from a single southwest-facing vineyard in Aÿ-Champagne, shaped by hot daytime sun and occasional winds (hence its former name, Contraste). It is informed by the oldest historical blend of all lieux-dits, dating back to 1994.
The Millésime, based heavily on Chardonnay and selected from the estate’s best wines through blind tasting, is the most tightly wound, placing a premium on freshness. This comes as no surprise, as it’s the only wine in the lineup without reserve wines or a perpetual blend component.
Substance completes the range. This wine, made through four stages of maturation from barrel to bottle, is produced from a solera established in 1986. Originally sourced from two parcels in Avize, today’s Substance is produced from a selection of plots in the village, with the “base wine” contributing only about 4.8% to the final blend in the bottle. Selosse remarks that this controlled oxidation during maturation frees the wine from fruit in a classic sense, leaving behind only the residue that enhances its mineral aspect, making it one of the most singular wines in Champagne—and indeed, all of France.
Given Selosse's avowed aspiration to make specific wines for a small clientele, how is it that they've become so internationally sought after? The charisma of the man himself must be acknowledged, of course. But the wines' sheer texture and plenitude are striking, whether on a first encounter or a decade later. While Selosse has plenty of admirers and even several imitators, there's nothing like his wines in Champagne. What is clear is that, while the grower Champagne movement has had its other luminaries, none could deny Anselme Selosse pride of place in its pantheon. If Champagne is an exciting region today, no one has contributed more to that transformation than Selosse. Far from resting on the family laurels, Guillaume is following in his father's footsteps, pushing the parameters of what’s possible in Champagne.
Published: Dec 19, 2024
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