Philipponnat’s Fizz from Clos des Goisses – Pre-Arrival Offer


“Clos des Goisses has always been one of the most extraordinary jewels in Champagne’s crown.” Tom Stevenson

These very special wines are offered on a pre-arrival basis and will be delivered in End of June 2021.

The Story

The 2011 Clos des Goisses from “…arguably the single greatest vineyard site in Champagne…”

“…this clos is a special site, and the wine from it is truly remarkable.” Jamie Goode

“It is arguably the single greatest vineyard site in Champagne…” Peter Liem

“Clos des Goisses has always been one of the most extraordinary jewels in Champagne’s crown.” Tom Stevenson

“Philipponnat is known above all for the Clos des Goisses, a 5.5 hectare, south-facing vineyard purchased by Pierre Philipponnat in 1935. Recognizing the qualities of this unusual site he immediately began bottling the Clos des Goisses as a separate, single-vineyard champagne, an unheard-of practice at the time.” Peter Liem

We’re delighted that Charles Philipponnat has once again presented us with an allocation of his Estate’s legendary Clos des Goisses, now from the 2011 vintage.
Not only is the release an outstanding success, but the 2011 is also destined to become something of a collector’s item: it represents the first ever Clos des Goisses made exclusively from Pinot Noir. This was due to a combination of factors: in 2011, several of the Chardonnay parcels were replanted due to court noué (grapevine fanleaf virus), giving Philipponnat less to work with; secondly, the style of the vintage produced exceptionally fine and floral Pinot Noir in the Clos that was simply best on its own, rather than blended.
This fits with Charles Philipponnat’s general philosophy: each vintage, he and his team make a selection of only their finest wines for the Clos des Goisses, from the vineyard through to the cellar—hence the quality and limited quantity under this label. The result this year, as usual, is a triumph—as the critics’ notes below make clear. Philipponnat himself believes the 2011 resembles great vintages like 2006 or 1999.
Alongside this release we also have two other wines. Again, we have been given a miniscule allocation of the Clos des Goisses Juste Rosé. And again, we had to work pretty hard to get our small allocation of this late disgorgement rosé.

This year also sees the 1995 release of Philipponnat’s L.V. or Long Vieillissement i.e., ‘long aging’ project. It is widely accepted that the Clos des Goisses is one of the finest wines in Champagne for aging and needs at least 10-15 years to unveil its true majesty. In short, for over two decades Philipponnat has been holding back a portion of the Clos des Goisses to be released over time. For over two decades Philipponnat has been holding back a portion of the Clos des Goisses to be released over time. While there have already been some late disgorged wines released over the years, the L.V. range now formalises a yearly release at the same time as the current vintage. It is widely accepted that the Clos des Goisses needs 10-15 years to unveil its truly majesty and, when it comes to aging Champagne, maturation on lees with late disgorgement is best. Vinified under the then chef de cave Norbert Thiébert, and aged for a quarter of a century in Philipponnat’s Caveau du Trésor. The wines are not cheap, but they are special.


Thoughts on extended lees ageing from:

Wine Decoded’s Chief Wine Hacker, Paul Kaan

I made sparkling wine in Australia and Champagne in France. The first time you put 100,000 bottles away for their second fermentation is an experience of elation and trepidation in one. Until that second fermentation is finished you live on the knife’s edge of having stuffed up years of work or created that sparkle we all love!

Then comes the next set of decision: How do I store these bottles? How long do I wait before riddling them? How long will I leave them in contact with the lees (dead yeast from the second ferment)?

Philopponnat’s L.V. range is certainly pushing the envelope. With wines on lees for decades. Producers like Provost prefer absolute minimum time on lees believing the expression of the terroir will be diminished by time on lees. Personally I call what’s in the glass. Some of the most profound experience I’ve had involved Late Disgorged wines.

The pic below left shows champagne Sur Lie with maximum area of lees to wine contact. The pic on the right shows wines that have been shifted to being Sur Pointe (on point) for extend maturation. This shifts the lees into the neck of the bottle reducing the surface area of lees exposed to the wine and slowing the development of autolysis characters from the break down of yeast.

The environment in the bottle with all oxygen consumed by the yeast, 6.5 bar of pressure from a wine saturated with CO2, and, the reductive nature of the yeast lees, keeps the wine fresh. As time passes the wines harmonise, offering more depth of the mid-palate and build additional layers of complexity, the become seamless.

I’ve been lucky enough to bottle several vintages of sparkling wine, I still have magnums from the 1999 vintage on lease, and, uncovered a forget stash of bottles from 1998 just a week ago.

I love hand riddling these and disgorging them to drink immediately without dosage or resealing. The present such incredible freshness and pleasure!


The History

I’ll Drink to That! Wine Podcast · IDTT Wine 355: Charles Philipponnat

The Clos des Goisses is one of Champagne’s greatest and most important historic terroirs. The vineyard, situated in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ just a 10-minute drive east of Epernay, is located in an area that has forever been renowned for the quality of its wines, even before Champagne was sparkling! The site rises steeply from the edge of the Marne river and is planted with 3.5 hectares of Pinot Noir and two hectares of Chardonnay. It faces almost due south—one of the keys to its greatness—so ripeness is rarely an issue. This aspect, the extremely chalky soils and atypical warmth (an average growing season temperature of 1.5 °C higher than most of Champagne) results in one of Champagne’s most powerful and intense wines.

With good reason, this was the very first sparkling wine in Champagne to be bottled as a single vineyard wine (in 1935 as “Vin des Goisses”) and the quality has always been special. Today, with a focus on precise viticulture, old massale vines, moderate yields and ripe fruit at harvest time, the wine has never been better.

In his book, Champagne (Mitchel Beazley, 2017) Peter Liem writes that Philipponnat’s Clos de Goisses is “…a wine of intense minerality, a pure essence of Champagne’s chalk allied with ripe, vivid fruit flavours. It is arguably the single greatest vineyard site in Champagne…” He goes on to say, “From a top vintage, Clos des Goisses is one of the most exciting experiences that Champagne can offer.”

In the Vineyard

Clos des Goisses is a parcel of 11 Lieux Dits. Gois or Goisse meaning very steep gives us the first clue to the site. Yes it is very steep running at 45º. Facing due south the pure chalk slope receives sun for the full day. The warmth of the Clos des Goisses typically offers higher potential alcohol for the fruit, and, powerfull intense wines.

In the Winery

With the richness of the fruit, many of the processes and much of the decision making in the winery revolves around retention of freshness. For example malolactic fermentation is blocked. Yet there is a clear understanding of élévage with the use of barrel maturation. The wood sourced from Burgundy after it has seen 2-3 years of use. The house describes the wines of Clos desGoisses as ‘big, Burgundian style of champagne!’

Where in the World is Philiopponnat?

Philipponnat, has vineyards in Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Avenay.

The map below shows the main sub-regions of Champagne

Click to enlarge🔎


From left to right Champagne vineyards by Soil Type, Aspect and Dominant Varietal

Click on a map to enlarge🔎

Want More?

For an in-depth history of the vineyard and its wines, along with a summary of the wine growing and winemaking, please see the links below.


About the Wines


2011 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses

The blend: 100% Pinot Noir.

Vinification: Traditional vinification for 80% of the wine in wooden barrels, the balance in tank. There was no malolactic fermentation.

Aging: Bottle aging on lees for over eight years at a constant temperature of 12°C in the house’s historic cellars in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

Dosage: Extra Brut (4.25 g/L) to give full expression to the vinosity and minerality of this exceptional vineyard.

Disgorged: March 2020.

Of the Clos des Goisses’ 14 plots, only the four finest were used to craft the 2011 blend. Even then, only the best wines were selected for the final blend. It’s an incredibly fine, floral and pure wine with great drive and finesse. The notes below capture it well.

Be sure to serve it in a proper wine glass, ideally not too cold, and don’t be scared to decant. In short, treat it like a fine white wine—for that’s what it is! It’s also a serious food wine and able to stand up to a wide range of dishes including roast chicken or pork, game birds, sausages, hard cheeses, pâtés and terrines, etc.

18.5+ Points

“Bright copper colour. Very savoury, dense, dry nose. Tight bead and more than a little pungency on the finish. So long and intense. Still quite tightly packed in, so that the finish is positively electric! This is stunning with some vibrant green-vegetation notes. Note the much higher alcohol than is usual for champagne. This just goes on and on and is all youthful pleasure. So many waves of rich minerality. Up there with the best.”

Jancis Robinson

96 Points

“Clos des Goisses 2011 is particularly floral with notes of iris, jasmine, roses as well as spring herbs. The nose is delightfully complicated by delicate citrus notes and hints of white peach. On the palate, the massive, full-bodied side of Clos des Goisses is certainly present but there seems to be less density than certain vintages. This is a more crystalline, precise expression of Clos des Goisses, one endowed with a fine and pure texture. Bravo.”

Decanter

My favourite

“Initially this is softly scented, with notes of yellow apple flesh, a breeze of salty sea air and an edge of honeycomb. With more temperature it becomes ever more expressive, with fruity hints of fragrant wild raspberry. Later there is an incredible floral hit, almost of narcissus. There is something solid here, yet it is exquisitely slender. Exquisitely fragrant and so serene, the wine holds within it the contradiction of northerly latitude and sun-kissed generosity. With air more savouriness comes though, like extra-salty soy. Exquisite concentration, the depth of subdued autolysis really speaks in the creamy length. Solid but soaring, statuesque. My favourite.”

Anne Krebiehl MW

2009 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses Juste Rosé

The blend: 64% Pinot Noir, 36% Chardonnay

Aging: Bottle aging on lees for nine years in the house’s historic cellars in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

Dosage: Extra Brut (4.25 g/L).

Disgorged: March 2020.

Packaged in a solid oak box. The incredibly rare Juste Rosé was added to the portfolio in 1999, and 2009 is only the eighth release. The wine is based on the same blend as the Clos des Goisses 2009, with an addition of seven percent still Pinot Noir wine, made from the highest lieu-dit of the Clos des Goisses. Less than 3,000 bottles are produced in any given year.

Fermentation took place in large oak with a degree of maceration bringing in more grip than can be found in the Clos des Goisses proper. The wines did not go through malolactic, the idea being that the natural acidity would compensate for the richness provided by the terroir and the power of the vintage. The wine was aged for nine years, only being put on the market when perfectly mature, around 14 months after the Clos des Goisses bottling.

18.5+ Points

“Quite difficult to tell this rosé from a white, but then it is only 'just rosé'. Very pale bronze. The same ultra-pretty nose as the Cuvée 1522 rosé, but more intense and with a bit more grip and density on the palate. What a stunning wine – and with quite a future too. Very long and beautifully balanced on a tightrope. This wine caresses the palate. How lovely to find such a gentle wine with such a low dosage. Vibrates on the extremely long finish.”

Jancis Robinson

95 Points

"The 2009 Extra-Brut Clos des Goisses Juste Rosé is absolutely gorgeous. In 2009, the Juste Rosé has a bit more body and resonance than normal, which works so well here given that it can be a bit fleeting. Crushed red berries, mint, white pepper and chalk are some of the many aromas and flavors that race through this taut, finely sculpted Rosé from Philipponnat. The 2009 is beautifully done.”

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

95 Points

"Our attention is captivated from the first whiff by the dazzling aromatic complexity of this exceptional 2009 Juste Rosé. Such a vibrant expression of raspberry and citrus fruits ranging from blood orange to clementine mingling with floral scents of iris and rose. There is power and thrust for its full-bodied texture that stretches out on a long finish. One of the great rosé Champagnes from Clos des Goisses, it should age beautifully over the next 20 years. Dosage: 4.5 g/L.”

Decanter

A Marvel

“An incredibly intense nose: super-creamy with the finest touch of bourbon vanilla, cherry and bitter almond and again that edge of white pepper and a hint of tiny, ripe, red-cheeked vineyard peach. The body is rounded and has complete fluidity and an overtone of very ripe white currant and redcurrant. Its beautiful depth recalls a resonant, earthy Pinot-ness of autumn leaf which starts verging into white truffle. There is something visceral, undeniably woodlandish and utterly seductive about it. A marvel.”

Anne Krebiehl MW

1995 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses L.V.

The blend: 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay.

Disgorged: March 2020.

Packaged in a solid oak box. While there have already been some late disgorged wines released over the years, the L.V. range now formalises a yearly release at the same time as the current vintage. Note, we are talking about maturation on lees here, with late disgorgement for release.

The 1995 L.V was vinified under then chef de cave Norbert Thiébert, and aged for a quarter of a century in Philipponnat’s Caveau du Trésor. Total production was limited to just 311 bottles.

94 Points

“The 1995 Extra-Brut LV Clos des Goisses is gorgeous. That's not at all surprising, as Clos de Goisses boasts an extraordinary track record of aging well. Now gently softened by the passage of time, the 1995 LV is in a beautiful spot right now to provide pure pleasure. Dried flowers, chamomile, plum, orange peel, hazelnut and coffee are all signatures of a wine that has reached its first plateau of maturity. Even better, the 1995 shows no signs at all of fading.”

Antonio Galloni, Vinous

19 Points

“Deep coppery-gold colour. Sumptuous nose is almost essence of floral Pinot notes. The mousse is gentle, caressing the palate. Really fresh and youthful but with many extra layers of flavour including some of those mushroomy notes that Pinot Noir can exhibit after many years in bottle. One of those champagnes that's really rather more like a f ine burgundy that happens to sparkle appetisingly. Very deep-flavoured. Although it has notes that are both youthful and mature, it seems beautifully integrated. Very long. It may, like the other Philipponnat wines, be labelled Extra Brut but it's not remotely austere.”

Jancis Robinson MW

96 Points

“Philipponnat keeps back a small number of bottles of Clos des Goisses that are disgorged after a lengthy period of cellaring. The complex and magical nose reveals subtle resinous notes and scents of Mirabelle plum, pineapple, candied lemon, ginger, and a touch of curry spices. On the palate, this is a powerful Champagne balanced by impressive freshness and a beautiful expression of its Chardonnay component, so graceful and round. The Pinot Noir comes to the fore on the slightly chalky finish. A very beautiful Champagne now at its apogée. Dosage: 4,5 g/L. Disgorgement: March 2020. LV stands for Long Vieillissement (Long Ageing).”

Decanter

Show-Stopping

“The nose is intense from the start, radiating the richness of thick, sweet, heavy cream. This creaminess is imbued with saltiness. A hint of white, fresh field mushrooms appears alongside an echo of candied lemon. There also is mirabelle, a flavour reminiscent of the caramelised edge of baked fruit. This is super-rich and more air and temperature procure a hint of spicy, salty maple syrup – without any sweetness at all, anchored in freshness and cool, pervasive chalk. With even more air there almost is a hint of chamomile. We taste the evolution of the fruit, notably not so much autolysis, there is no tiredness at all, just the delicious contradiction of mature freshness. Incredible length and intensity. A wonderful, absolutely unusual and show-stopping addition to Champagne’s illustrious gallery of late-disgorgement releases. A real experience.”

Anne Krebiehl MW


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