🍾 Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 2016

Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 2016 is the 2016 release of Clos des Goisses by the house Philipponnat, a vintage white Champagne.

According to the house, a wine from the 5.83 ha walled vineyard on the steepest slope of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ; made every year since 1988, rarely exceeding half the vineyard’s potential volume; the wine is fermented mainly in wooden barrels without malolactic fermentation; it ages 9–11 years in the cellar; the dosage is 4 g/l.

Philipponnat is a house from Mareuil-sur-Aÿ; according to the house, the family has lived in Champagne since 1522 and owns 20 ha of premier and grand cru vineyards, including the Clos des Goisses.

The boundaries of the Champagne area were set by a law of 6 May 1919: parts of the Marne, Aube, Aisne, Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne departments. The designation’s specification allows seven grape varieties, dominated by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier; grapes are picked as whole bunches, that is by hand, and the yield is limited to 10,400 kg per hectare.

According to the Comité Champagne, Champagne is served chilled to 8–10 °C, and bottles are kept in the dark at a steady 10–15 °C, without vibration. An opened bottle is best closed with a sparkling-wine stopper and kept cold.

It is sold under the protected designation of origin Champagne: the bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, and the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage). Check the label for the sugar term (brut, extra brut and so on): the house does not state it on the wine's page.

Why it matters to you. The year on the label is the harvest year, so different years of the same line are different wines. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.