The Vision of Christian Gosset

Always Learning

Despite his 35 years of experience and a decade making wine under his own name, Christian still considers himself an emerging vigneron. This perspective keeps his work focused and precise, rooted in the terroir of Aÿ and guided by his commitment to authenticity. His Champagnes are defined by restraint and clarity, expressing their origins with purity and intent.

His range of wines are laser-focused on terroir: five hectares of vines in the Grand Cru villages of Aÿ and Chouilly, as well as the Premiers Crus of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Dizy and Avenay-Val-d’Or.

The Vineyard & Land

Rolling Hills

Aÿ’s 375 hectares of Grand Cru vineyards are predominantly south-facing and planted to pinot noir. Although the steepness varies by plot, the vineyards unfold in a series of gentle undulations, with differing altitudes and exposures, creating remarkable terroir diversity within a very small area.

Christian’s vineyards are in prime, central locations on the upper slopes of Aÿ’s hills. Often the source of the most powerful pinot noir-based wines of Champagne, Christian’s vines have an extraordinarily high average age (45+ years) and are naturally low-yielding, producing flavorful, concentrated grapes. For him, one of the most desirable characteristics of these vineyards is their complexity and intensity.

All of his vineyards are classified as Grand Cru and farmed without herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or other chemicals.

His range of wines are laser-focused on terroir: five hectares of vines in the Grand Cru villages of Aÿ and Chouilly, as well as the Premiers Crus of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Dizy and Avenay-Val-d’Or.

Process & Philosophy

The Gentleman of Aÿ

Following a personal philosophy that great Champagne starts with exceptional fruit, Christian follows a judicious approach in the vineyard, treating his vines without chemicals and only when necessary. Drawing from his deep understanding of his terroir, he encourages a healthy biodiversity in the vineyard as a means to soil health and regeneration.

After hand-harvesting each plot, the pressing is done using a traditional Coquard press. Working only with the coeur de cuvée, the pressed juice flows by gravity directly into the vinification barrels with each plot vinified separately. Almost exclusively in used barrels, the wine then goes through a spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts.

His Brut assemblage series and rosé are bottled in alphanumeric order, with each letter and number referencing the base vintage (A01 for 2016, A02 for 2017, A03 for 2018, etc.).

The Brut assemblage is a blend of Grand Cru pinot noir from Aÿ and Grand Cru chardonnay from Chouilly, in the Côte des Blancs. Each vintage, Christian tastes the full collection of his parcels before making blending decisions; once he has tasted, he also decides what proportion of reserve wine will be included. Depending on vintage quality and Christian’s intuition, the Brut assemblage is the primary candidate for a small proportion of new oak, as wine from newly replaced barrels is typically integrated into this cuvée.

Christian has a small selection of old-vine lieux-dits, which he only bottles in the best vintages. In all other vintages, these incredible parcels amplify the quality of his Brut assemblage series.

He approaches the rosé with more flexibility, retaining the option to bottle a saignée or parcellaire rosé if he feels the vintage shows the quality to do so.

All of the wines are aged in his cellar for a minimum of three years on the lees, regardless of the vintage or cuvée. Notably for the assemblage series, Christian extends the aging well beyond what is required, treating the wines as true vintage Champagnes regardless of the level of reserve wine. None of the wines go through cold stabilization, and are only lightly filtered. Christian prefers to work with lower dosage levels, bottling the assemblage series as Brut, and the assemblage rosé and vintage lieu-dits as either Extra Brut or Brut Nature.

The Micro Lieux-dits of Christian Gosset

Reverence & Power

Christian is a resolute believer in the power of lieux-dit bottlings to transmit the elegance and power of revered plots and exposures. In the best vintages, Christian bottles fewer than four thousand bottles of each of his lieux-dits.

La Cheminée (Aÿ Grand Cru)
La Cheminée is a 0.5ha lieut-dit made up of two incredibly steep, west-facing parcels of pinot noir called Brisepot and Pisseloup, planted in pure chalk.

Les Pierres Robert (Aÿ Grand Cru)
Les Pierres Robert is a 0.32ha parcel of pinot noir planted on loamy topsoil over deep chalk.

Loiselu (Aÿ Grand Cru)
Loiselu is a single, a 0.4ha, east-facing parcel of pinot noir planted in 1963 midslope on 60cm topsoil of clay over pure chalk.

Croix‑Courcelles (Aÿ Grand Cru)
Croix-Courcelles is a 1.5ha lieu-dit composed of two very small south-facing parcels of pinot noir planted in 1969 and chardonnay planted in 1992 on more fertile soil over chalk, in the flatter part of the hill closer to the road.

Sorangeon (Chouilly Grand Cru)
Christian’s only parcel in the Côtes des Blancs, Sorangeon is a 0.25ha, east-facing lieu-dit in the Grand Cru village of Chouilly planted to chardonnay in 1963. Christian bottles it as a Blanc de Blancs, although his broader focus with Champagne Christian Gosset is Pinot Noir.​