96+ From a cooler, fresher vintage and based on more Chardonnay than usual (55%), with 45% Pinot Noir, the Philipponnat 2008 Clos des Goisses Extra-Brut shows an exciting bouquet of bright fruits, crushed chalk, bread and iodine notes. On the palate, this is an excitingly vibrant, fresh and chalky Clos with lovely citrus and cumquat flavors on the finish. The 2008 is very complex, bright, super clear and fresh, with a tightly woven structure but still great finesse and elegance. This is a fabulous Clos for the next three decades. The dosage is 4.5 grams per liter. Disgorged in April 2017 (?), tasted at the domaine in April 2018. - Stephan Reinhardt

The south-facing slopes of the Clos des Goisses have worked their magic once again to produce this top-quality, opulent wine in the 2008 vintage with aromas of lush baked apples and flaky pastry, with an undercurrent of spice and mineral. The texture is rich, almost unctuous, with a creamy feel and impressive length. The blend is 45% Pinot Noir and 55% Chardonnay, aged eleven years on the lees and disgorged with an extra-brut dosage of 4.5g/L. Although it is drinking well now, this has the substance to age another fifty years—superb!

95+ I wrote about the 2008 Clos des Goisses back in June of last year, as it was part of a superb vertical tasting I had the pleasure to participate in at that time. As I mentioned, it is a pretty unique vintage of Clos des Goisses, as there is more chardonnay in the blend than pinot noir, and, to the best of my knowledge this has only happened once before back in 1964. The cépages of the 2008 is fifty-five percent chardonnay and forty-five percent pinot noir. After first tasting it last summer, I was delighted to cross paths with it out of magnum during my recent trip to Burgundy and the wine was showing beautifully. The superb bouquet offers up a youthful blend of apple, white peach, chalky soil tones, dried flowers, bread dough, a touch of citrus peel and incipient smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, young and nascently complex, with a great core of fruit, zesty acids, pinpoint bubbles and great cut and grip on the long and vibrant finish. This was still youthful out of regular-sized format in the summer and is even younger out of magnum! It will be a great, great vintage of Clos des Goisses, but it will need time.

The Clos des Goisses is a 13.6-acre parcel on a chalk hillside in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, a steep, 45-degree slope facing due south, planted to chardonnay (55 percent) and pinot noir. A majority of the wine ferments in oak casks and none of it undergoes malolactic fermentation. The direct southerly exposure and the steep slope provided an ideal situation in a cool, rainy season like 2008, creating a wine with facets and dimensions that continue to shift and evolve through a nuanced finish. The fruit feels completely ripe, and the minimal dosage only serves to accelerate the cool, gingery clarity of flavor. Panelist Jamal Rayyis described the remarkable length of flavor as “turmeric, dried spice, dried apple and chalkiness,” and suggested taking it to dinner at a Thai place for fish in a coconut curry. (Disgorged 9/17.)

Refined and seamless, showing effortless integration of the expressive, chalk-tinged minerality, the frame of sleek acidity, and the flavors of poached apple, pastry dough, orchard blossom, ground ginger and graphite carried on a delicate mousse. Impressive for the finesse and grace it projects today, but the restrained power here suggests a long future in the cellar. Disgorged April 2017. Drink now through 2035. 2,300 cases made, 750 cases imported. — AN