Millésime 2009

The wine in this vintage

Warm and generous, 2009 in Champagne produced ripe, broad wines with rounded fruit, more approachable than the rigorous 2008 that preceded it. Jacques Selosse's Millésime 2009, a blanc de blancs from Grand Cru vineyards in Avize, interprets this sunny character with the house's typical depth: yellow peach, baked apple, acacia honey, hazelnut, sweet spice and a chalky core that keeps the palate in balance. The mousse is creamy and the finish long and saline. Robert Parker awarded it 97 points. It can already be fully enjoyed, but can be kept for several more years.

The producer · Jacques Selosse

Jacques Selosse is the grower-producer who, more than any other, has changed the way Champagne is thought about. The house was born in Avize, a Grand Cru of the Côte des Blancs, where Jacques Selosse began bottling his own grapes in the mid-twentieth century; from the 1970s his son Anselme, trained in Burgundy, turned it into a laboratory of ideas, and today the reins have passed to Anselme's son Guillaume. The vineyards, just under eight hectares, lie mainly in Avize, Cramant, Oger and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger for Chardonnay, with Pinot Noir parcels in Aÿ, Ambonnay and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Anselme brought a vigneron's outlook to Champagne: soil-focused farming, low yields, very ripe fruit, native-yeast fermentations in wood, long lees ageing, minimal dosage and the perpetual reserve behind Substance. The result is vinous, nobly oxidative wines deeply tied to place, which have inspired an entire generation of growers.

Critics' scores

• 97 Robert Parker
• 95 Antonio Galloni

Technical details

Producer

Jacques Selosse

Region

Champagne

Country

Francia

Type

Bollicine

Vintage

2009

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

96/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0830809