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Selosse Millesime, Champagne Jacques Selosse 2003

Tasting Notes

A brilliant wine from this torrid vintage, Selosse's 2003 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Millésime is drinking beautifully today, wafting from the glass with rich aromas of warm biscuits, golden orchard fruit, mirabelle, orange oil, toasted bread, beeswax and dried citrus peel. Full-bodied, round and enveloping, it's sapid and intense, with succulent acids and a pearly mousse. This is marked as much by Selosse's approach as it is by the vintage—in itself quite an achievement in a year such as this.

94
William Kelley, RobertParker.com, March 2021

Sourced from two parcels in Avize, Selosse’s 2003 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs evinces aromas of malted barley, toasted nuts, mocha and sweat, as such quite recognizably of its torrid vintage. On the palate, the torrefactive and animal dimensions are met by a surprising sense of primary juiciness, even though it’s difficult to pin down a particular fruit, though mirabelle is suggested. Full and lees-endowed but in no way heavy – indeed, there’s an uncanny sense of buoyancy – this finishes with profound length, incorporating suggestions of chalk, if not the mouthwatering salinity that I associate with most Selosse wines and with Avize in general. Its author opines that not just its relative levity but also its sense of structure and clarity surprise him based on his expectations at the time of harvest and when the wine was young. “I started picking on the fifth of September,” he recalls, “yet the potential alcohol level was not really that high, – 11.5 to the upper 11’s – due to repeated blockage (i.e. shut-down) of the vine metabolism.” I suspect this will prove fascinating as well as versatile over at least the next 3-4 years. (The bottle I tasted was disgorged in February and went to market this autumn.)

93
David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate (1113), November 2013
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