2006 Gosset "Grand Millésime" Brut Champagne

The 2006 Gosset “Grande Millésime” is comprised of a blend of fifty-six percent pinot noir and forty-four percent chardonnay. The wine spent eight years aging on its fine lees prior to disgorgement and was finished off with a dosage of six grams per liter. The wine offers up a fine and vibrant bouquet of apple, a touch of peach, warm bread, beautiful minerality, gentle smokiness, just a whisper of fresh nutmeg and a topnote of white lilies. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and still quite racy in personality, with a lovey core, refined mousse, crisp acids and excellent focus and grip on the long and complex finish. This is drinking very well today, but it is still climbing and will be even better with a bit more time in the cellar. A lovely vintage of this fine cuvée.

Gosset's 2006 Grand Millésime Brut is still on the market, and the wine is very open and expressive by the house's standards, bursting from the glass with notes of crisp but sun-kissed yellow orchard fruit, pear, clear honey and warm biscuits. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, broad and creamy, with a fleshy, generous profile that's balanced by brisk acids and enlivened by a delicate pinpoint mousse, concluding with a subtly chalky finish. (WK)