reflects the planting itself—70 percent Pinot Noir and 30 percent Chardonnay— but in 1996 and 2008, terrific vintages both, the honors were shared 50/50. Volumes made can reflect (informally) the quality of the vintage and can vary from 3,000 to 30,000 bottles, averaging somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000. The house once again led the way in 2021 when Clos des Goisses was the first Champagne to be offered on the Place de Bordeaux, a successful move, now followed by others, which has helped to seal an already impressive reputation on the world stage. A further innovation has been the introduction of the LV (as in long vieillissement) series of late-disgorged vintages, the 1997 Clos des Goisses LV the latest manifestation. A fantastic range, powerful in youth and complex in maturity; take your pick. Charles quotes Corneille, who reminds us that “for wines nobly born, valor doesn’t await the passing of years.” But it can do…
This reputation of Clos des Goisses
“aberration.” “The terroir,” writes Charles, “is indeed atypical and constraining, with extreme and unusual qualities, standing as an exception to established ideas, which it transcends rather than contradicts.” It is as steep as Savoie or the Mosel, or Côte-Rôtie. Its vines are notoriously difficult to farm; winches, sledges, and caterpillar carriers all play their part; it is too precipitous for the horse and plow, alas. Long recognized as a single source of superlative Champagne, Goisses did not actually become Clos des Goisses until the 1950s, still early enough for its first outing thus (1951) to appear almost 30 years before its equally famous counterpart, Krug’s Clos de Mesnil. Today, there are between 40 and 50
Above: Charles Philipponnat (left) with his son François, continuing a very long family tradition.
wines entitled to be labeled as a clos across Champagne, all glorying in what was once a radical and more obviously Burgundian concept of the single (walled) vineyard. This has been one of the most significant developments in a region that has been long dedicated to cross-regional blending.
Clos des Goisses has a lot to answer
for, then, and answer it does, with great eloquence, with every vintage declared since 1988. Respect for biodiversity, allied to the benefits of massal selection and plot-by-plot vinification (there are 14 semi-autonomous plots including Les Cintres) underwrite the style, even if a spirit of pragmatism is sometimes required. The tricky 2011 vintage, for example, was a blanc de noirs, such were the problems encountered with the Chardonnay. Normally, the blend
is significant, of course, but Charles wants more than its “reflected glory.” In a sense, even more significant has been the work put in to improve the Royale Réserve Brut Non-Vintage stalwart, maybe once seen as somewhat rustic in style. Rusticity has now ceded to power; power in turn deferential to balance and elegance. The entire range is now worthy of its pennant. The book finishes with a series of endorsements from seven admirers of Philipponnat, including Michelin chefs Jérôme Banctel and Gérard Boyer, Zurich-based sommelier Marc Almert, critic William Kelley, and, closer to home, the son of Michel Collard, Jean-Philippe, who has taken his father’s love of music to a logical conclusion and has become an international concert pianist. He recalls how his father used to put on concerts during harvest-time: “There was chaos everywhere, with semi- quavers and grapes getting mixed up,” he jokes. What fun it must have been to attend such a concert, its ode to joy effortlessly and almost inadvertently capturing the essence of what has, very slowly, very surely, made Philipponnat such a successful Champagne house. Charles’s enlightened guidance has underwritten it all—quite literally, in the case of this happy book.
THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 55
Photography by Mika Boudot
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