Substance

The wine in this vintage

Substance is Anselme Selosse's manifesto wine: a Grand Cru blanc de blancs from Avize Chardonnay, made with a solera-style perpetual reserve begun in the late 1980s and replenished each year with new wine. Each disgorgement therefore carries the memory of dozens of harvests. The result is a Champagne of extraordinary complexity: quince, candied citrus, toasted hazelnut, honey, spice and almost oxidative-wine notes, held together by vibrant acidity and chalky minerality. Robert Parker rated it 98 points. It drinks splendidly now and can continue to evolve for a long time.

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

• 98 Robert Parker
• 96 Wine Spectator
• 96 Antonio Galloni
• 17.5/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Jacques Selosse

Region

Champagne

Country

Francia

Type

Bollicine

Vintage

Non vintage

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

96.7/100

Sizes

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

eWibe code

0831000