With an annual production of around 55,000 bottles, Champagne Selosse is never going to be widely distributed nor well-known outside the confines of the fine wine universe. Within this world, Selosse has become increasingly celebrated, and not just on account of the soaring values the wines achieve in the secondary market – it has become one of the most expensive labels in Champagne. Anselme Selosse, who took over the reins fully on his father Jacques’s retirement in 1980, was named Best French Winemaker in 1994 by the magazine Gault-Millau. Anselme’s son, Guillaume, formally assumed responsibility for the House in 2018.
Jacques Selosse is a récoltant-manipulant (grower/bottler) with cellars in Avize in the Côte de Blancs district of Champagne with eight hectares of vines comprising over 50 individual plots spread across six villages of cru and grand cru status. With 88% Chardonnay vines, the House has a strong focus on the blanc de blancs style.
Despite the small production, a plethora of cuvées is made today. However, until 2010, the focus was on a vintage champagne (Millésime, Brut or Extra Brut according to the year). Mature bottlings are highly sought after in the marketplace, both 2002 and 2008 vintages for example trading at around £2000 a bottle in bond – substantially more that most vintages of Chateau Lafite.
From 2010, Millésime (usually a Blanc-de-Blancs) was joined by annual releases of single vineyard bottlings. The Lieux-Dits Collection case comprises one bottle each from Chardonnay holdings in the villages of Cramant (Chemins des Chalôns), Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (Les Carelles), Avize (Les Chanteraines), and one bottle each from Pinot Noir holdings in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ (Sous le Mont), Aÿ (La Côte Faron) and Ambonnay (Bout du Clos). Exceptionally, this latter includes 20% Chardonnay in the blend. Lieux-Dits cuvées are not ‘vintaged’ but are labelled with a disgorgement date code instead. The market is perhaps slow to appreciate this change in production and bottling strategy: the (non-vintage) Lieu-Dits currently fetch substantially less than vintages of Millésime. A factor may be the reduced availability of the latter following the introduction of the new labels.
The range continues with the multi-vintage blends of Initial Brut, aged for two years before disgorgement, VO ‘Version Original’, Extra Brut (42 months ageing) and Substance, a single vineyard Blanc de Blancs made in a sherry-like solera system, originating with the 1987 crop. A sought-after Pinot Noir solera variant, Contraste Brut is also produced. Exquise is released as either a Sec or a Demi-Sec blend. Finally, a non-vintage Rosé is also bottled.
Vinification here is a differentiator, Jacques himself having introduced techniques used in the making of white Burgundy, notably fermentation in oak barriques - acquired, it is said, from Domaine Leflaive. Unlike Burgundy, malolactic fermentation is systematically suppressed to achieve the necessary acid balance. A Selosse distinction is oxidative ageing, which Anselme has pioneered through his solera cuvées (and, to a lesser extent, his other bottlings). These are stylistically unique wines that continue to divide consumer opinion. In Anselme’s word’s, "I have no interest in making Champagne that appeals to everyone."
It is also in the vineyard that the domaine has forged a singular path, a path that accounts for much of the mystique and reverence accorded to the wines. From 1996 until 2002, this path encompassed biodynamic principles. However, thereafter, Anselme Selosse searched for a new way, one that was less reliant on methods that he sensed were over manipulative. This intuitive approach was non-prescriptive, rather one of ‘permanent adaptation’ to the circumstances of the growing season and of the individual terroirs. The objective is to put Nature first, “to refrain from intervening as often as possible” according to Anselme. Grapes are harvested as late as the vintage allows to achieve an unusually high level of ripeness.
A new venture was initiated in 2011, Hôtel Restaurant Les Avisés, curated by Anselme and his wife Corinne. The location was the then-disused former cellars of Bricout-Delbeck Champagne in Avize, incorporating the handsome Chateau Koch, built in the 1820s.
Enquire here about Provinance's availability of wines from this producer.