Christian Gosset
Sorangeon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Champagne 2018
Christian Gosset Sorangeon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Champagne 2018
Champagne Christian Gosset is a boutique project by one of the most experienced winemakers and family names synonymous with quality in the village of Aÿ in the Vallée de la Marne. The Christian Gosset style is aromatic, powerful, and structured but always in search of finesse and elegance, with a common thread of verticality, precision, and intensity. Christian Gosset crafts gastronomic Champagnes destined to elevate world-class cuisine with a trademark long, complex finish. Christian’s ethos for his wines follows three tenets: typicity, precision, and pleasure.
Sorangeon is an east-facing lieu-dit in the Grand Cru village of Chouilly in the Côte des Blancs planted to chardonnay in 1963. This plot of chardonnay with exposed chalk gives wine great tension, immense purity, and great finesse. Produced only in exceptional vintages in tiny quantities, Sorangeon represents a powerful and transparent expression of the opulence of Chouilly.
Sorangeon has floral aromatics with chalky minerality and brioche. On the palate, the wine is direct and powerful, evolving with a luscious and airy sensation, supported by a nice tension. The long finish is centered on salinity and chalk.
Vinification: Bunches are hand-picked in small baskets with a strict selection in the vineyard. Winemaking is low-impact and low-intervention, with the pressing done at his neighbor Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy’s winery in a traditional Coquard basket press. The coeur de cuvée arrives by gravity into Christian Gosset’s cellar, directly into new and used 228L French barriques, where it undergoes both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. The wine is only moved twice: once into the fermentation barrel and once into the bottle. As Christian says, “let the wines ferment quietly, and then we meet again in July for the bottling.” The wine remains in the barrel completely undisturbed for 11 months without bâtonnage until bottling, which is important to avoid any oxidation. As a result, little to no sulfur is needed because the wine is not moved.
Sorangeon produces six barrels of wine, and only one new barrel is introduced each year; the others are between two and five years old, and all are produced by Tonnellerie de Champagne. Christian Gosset Champagnes are raw and natural, with no fining, filtering, or cold stabilization. He doesn’t feel the wine needs to be totally clear because disgorgement removes any potential sediment. All wines are aged in his cellar for a minimum of three years on the lees before disgorgement, regardless of the vintage.