Champagne Gosset launches 12 year-old NV cuvée

Champagne Gosset has unveiled a 12 year-old non-vintage cuvée based on the 2006 harvest in Champagne.

A limited edition run of 12,000 bottles have been produced of the new blend – which carries the official name Gosset Brut 12 Ans de Cave a Minima – with each one retailing for £95.

The just-launched Champagne follows a previous age-statement cuvée – in 2016 Gosset unveiled a Brut 15 Ans de Cave a Minima.

The 12 year-old cuvée is based on the 2006 vintage, although there is an 8% component of ‘reserve’ wines from other harvests to complement the character of the dominant year.

The Champagne was disgorged in December 2019 and given a dosage of 7g/l.

It is a blend of Chardonnay (49%) and Pinot Noir (51%), and, in keeping with the philosophy of Gosset, none of the wines in the blend have been through Malo-lactic fermentation, nor seen any contact with wooden vessels.

Gosset’s cellar master, Odilon de Varine, described the Champagne as having “great aromatic complexity, with plum, citrus peel, liquorice and peppermint”, adding that it is “A Champagne for true wine and food lovers.”

It is also suggested that the personality of the wine can be enhanced through aeration, with Odilon de Varine suggesting “un passage en carafe” to allow the Champagne to open up further.

With the maturation of a wine on lees being a reductive process – the process of autolysis consumes oxygen in the Champagne – aeration of the cuvée can benefit the aromatics of the fizz, he explained.

Intimating that there may be more ‘a minima’ Champagnes from Gosset in the future, he also said, “Maybe in the future we will do another, but we don’t know the age – it could be a nine year-old or an 18 year-old.”

Key facts: Gosset Brut 12 Ans Cave a Minima

Price: £95
Production: 12,000 bottles
Dosage: 7g/l.
Reserve wine: 8%
Base vintage: 2006
Disgorgement date: December 2019
Time on lees: 12 years

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