Version Originale is the Selosse Extra Brut blanc de blancs, drawn from hillside grand cru Chardonnay and raised in barrel. Almost no sugar is added at disgorgement, so what you taste is the fruit, the lees and the chalk.
About This Champagne
Juice for V.O. goes straight from the press into barrel, and all the solids go with it; nothing is thrown away. There is no malolactic fermentation. After the first fermentation and time on fine lees in wood, three successive harvests are blended and bottled for the second fermentation, followed by long ageing on the lees in bottle. Dosage sits at around 1.5 grams per litre, well inside the Extra Brut limit, so the richness comes from lees and oak, not sugar.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Ripe citrus, apple skin, chalk and brioche, with a gently oxidative note of walnut.
- Palate: Broad and mineral, with layered Chardonnay fruit, savoury depth and a fine, creamy bead.
- Finish: Very long and chalk-driven, closing on lemon pith and roasted nuts.
Serving & Food
A generous white wine glass and a serving temperature near 12°C show it best, and a brief decant is worth trying if the wine seems tight. Good now and for years to come. Match it with lobster in a light cream sauce, black cod with miso, or veal chop with mushrooms.
How to Enjoy
A thoughtful gift or dinner bottle for someone who already knows and enjoys low-dosage, barrel-fermented Champagne.
Product Details
Producer: Jacques Selosse
Origin: Champagne, France
Style: Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut Champagne
Grape: Chardonnay
Dosage: Extra Brut (around 1.5 g/L)
Volume: 750ml
About the Maison
Anselme Selosse has never settled on one farming doctrine. The domaine applied organic principles from 1990, moved to biodynamics in 1996, then stepped away from it in 2002, feeling it still imposed too much on nature. Since then the family has followed its own path, drawing on Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming and on permaculture, and adjusting plot by plot to each season. Their guiding rule comes from medicine: first, do no harm.
The cellar follows the same thinking. Fermentations run on yeasts taken from the domaine's own vineyards, sulphur is kept low, and the wines age on their fine lees in barrels that are mostly several years old. The family's view is that the grape juice already holds the wine's identity, and that the winemaker's job is to avoid masking it.