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between Aÿ and Dizy. The vineyard is called Le Léon, is still owned by the family, and, in exceptional years, is vinified and bottled as a separate cuvée. I for one can vouch for the exceptional quality of its latest iteration, the 2015. These three chapters very successfully interweave the family’s progress with a broader historical backdrop; we learn of the influence of the German merchants, we meet King Henri IV (the soi-disant king of Aÿ, where he kept one of his many mistresses, allegedly), the Medici Pope Leon X, who lent his name to the vineyard we have been discussing, and the Sun King, Louis XIV, no less, whose doctor prescribed Champagne over Burgundy as an antidote to gout. The deprivations of phylloxera and war are described, their effects on Champagne (“waves of stubble on a sea of chalk”) throwing the familial travails into sharp focus. We meet several significant ancestors (the family tree at the beginning of the book is a lifesaver), including Auguste Philipponnat, who, in 1851 created the Philipponnat Tambourt Négociant company, a direct descendant of the current house, and then Gustave Philipponnat, the mayor of Aÿ, whose influence on the evolving legislative bodies (the AVC, Association Viticole Champenoise, is a direct forebear of today’s CIVC) helped crystallize the often-complicated relationships between the workers and the négociant houses in the region.
Entering the 20th century, the
brothers August and Pierre feature prominently among the dramatis personae; they were responsible for the creation, in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in 1913, of the house as we know it today. The backdrop becomes stained by war and the German incursions, with the further complication of the Great Depression and Prohibition threatening and, at times, completely curtailing the commercial machine. Pierre had to walk the tightrope of German occupation at a time when commercial activity, difficult in the extreme, also often fell to the mercy of accusations of collaboration. The most significant part of Pierre’s legacy, however, was the purchase of the (already celebrated) Clos des Goisses vineyard, which he managed, somehow, to pull off in the procellous atmosphere of 1935 France, and for an exceptionally good price to boot.
54 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023
The two key characters to emerge from the war-torn wreckage are René Philipponnat (born in 1913 and the father of author Charles) and Michel Collard (born in 1921 and husband of Pierre’s daughter Monique). René’s significance is somewhat tangential; he became one of Dom Pérignon’s most influential cellar masters, a job from which he retired as late as 1977, but it was René who instilled a philosophy in his son Charles and in the chef de cave at Philipponnat, Louis Bouland, that underwrites the quality of the house as we know it today. Michel Collard did more than any other to encourage the flight to quality; auxiliary labels were shunned, growers were paid bonuses for the quality of their grapes, and the art of blending was refined, with only the first pressings permitted. An aesthete (he is also described as a dandy), Collard was a keen musician (he compared the Champagne assemblage process to musical composition and was said to bring “the grace of a poet” to the house) and socialite (he took a major stake in the Taillevent restaurant in Paris), but he was perhaps less attentive to the financial ledgers, which led, eventually, to selling up. Selling up three times, one should say, the last of which was to the Lanson-BCC Group and the murky waters of large corporate ownership. This meant difficult times for the house, and not that long ago, since this final sale took place as late as 1998. The end of the road for Philipponnat?
Not at all. Enter our hero, Charles, who had been working at Moët & Chandon. “God writes straight with crooked lines,” he says, and the five centuries were not without challenges, to put it mildly. All for a purpose, and that purpose celebrates a fascinating history and builds upon an impressive heritage. “My job has been to rebuild and not to dismantle,” says Charles, and he goes on to describe the work in both vineyard and winery that has been undertaken to achieve this aim. We meet the vineyard manager,
Aurélia Jamain, and learn about the “reasoned” organic viticulture employed to limit the challenges posed by oidium, botrytis, and nematodes, inter alia—a pragmatic approach focused on natural products only and now formalized by Haut Valeur Environmental (HVE) accreditation. Then into the winery we go for an encounter with long-serving cellar master Thierry Garnier and a discussion
on the reintroduction of oak barrels during the vinification process (228-liter pièces, together with 600-liter demi- muids and larger foudres); on the developments of the maturation of reserve wines (a third of which are barrel-aged in a perpetual reserve, a variant on the solera); on dosage, significantly reduced and now constant (8.5g/l for NV and 4.25g/l for the various Vintages); and finally on the increased significance of the rosé wines. Thierry then introduces the additions to the lineup: the 1522, the name of which should come as no surprise, but also the Blanc de Noirs and the other single-vineyard wines that complement Le Clos des Goisses (Les Cintres, Le Léon, and La Rémissionne). Behind it all, the guiding hand of Charles, now joined by his son François (the face of the 16th generation) and their ongoing efforts to ensure that the wines are well positioned across the word. For once, the phrase “tireless ambassador” seems far from inappropriate to describe Monsieur Philipponnat; exports have long been an important part of the business, making up more than two thirds of overall sales. Key to his thinking at all times is the need to preserve the familial, artisan image and an aura of exclusivity (he’s doing well on all three counts) but also to spread the word, especially in the Michelin restaurants of the world. Philipponnat is one of the smallest of the coterie of top-class grandes marques, one should remember.
A terroir and microclimate gift And so to Chapter Five, devoted, as one might expect, to Clos des Goisses. The significance of this single plot, with its Burgundian echoes, is given historical context with discussion on the origin of the name: La Goiss family, maybe? What about the French expression de quin-gois, meaning crooked? Or maybe poetically a variant on Clos de l’Angoisse? Nobody really knows. More significant is the steep (45 degrees) aspect, the southern exposure (close to the River Marne), and the purity of the belemnite chalk; this unique terroir and microclimate gift wines with potential alcohol at harvest averaging more than 11% and sometimes over 12%—that is to say, on average, a degree and a half higher than all the surrounding plots. The vineyard is therefore presented as something of an
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