2012 Grand Millesime Brut Magnum Gosset Champagner

Since Gosset makes a point of commercializing wines only when they deem them ready, the 2012 Grand Millésime Brut will be released at the end of this year, while the 2010 and 2008 continue to wait in the wings. The wine is still quite tightly wound after its recent disgorgement, unfurling in the glass with a youthful bouquet of warm biscuits, apple, lemon and peach that picks up a more pronounced smoky top note as the wine sits in the glass. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and powerful, with a deep and concentrated core, incisive acids and a precise, saline finish. This is a muscular vintage of the Grand Millésime that seems likely to evolve slowly.

This was a wonderful tasting with Gosset's cellar master Odilon de Varine, who presides over a remarkably consistent range of powerful but elegantly austere Champagnes that emphasize, as he puts it, the region's "mineral side." No doubt the systematic prevention of malolactic fermentation plays an important role in the house's tightly wound, incisive style. The philosophy here is that Champagne acquires complexity from evolution in bottle on the lees, not in barrel or tank, nor from the addition of elevated percentages of reserve wines. The release date of Gosset's cuvées is determined by tasting—which is why both the 2008 and 2010 Grand Millésime will be preceded by the release of the 2012 rendition.