2008 Gosset Vintage Extra Brut Celebris Millésimé
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2008 Champagne Celebris Extra Brut is 54% Chardonnay and the remainder Pinot Noir, aged for over 9 years in cellar on its lees with 4.8 g/l dosage. It is rounded with ripe aromas of orange oil, almond pastry, and peach and is seamless to the palate with modest acidity, generous orchard fruit, and a richness and umami that lifts off the palate with delicate salinity. Drink this benchmark wine in the range now or over the next 10-15 years. The oldest wine house in Champagne, established by Pierre Gosset in 1584 in Ay, Gosset was purchased by Reynaud-Cointreau in 1993. Today the chef de cave is Odilon de Varine, formerly of Deutz and Henriot, and the philosophy is to adapt to each year and not to get stuck in the past. Each of the growers’ plots are fermented separately and malolactic fermentation is entirely blocked, working with the lees to create roundness in the wines instead. The house has gradually shifted from being predominantly a Pinot Noir house to that of Chardonnay. Total annual production is approximately 1 million bottles though they have the capacity to produce 1.5 million. They hold a considerable stock of reserve wine going back 60 years, alleviating the pressures to put out more quantity. The 2008 bottlings of Celebris tasted here represent only the eighth release of that cuvée.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Gosset's just-released 2008 Extra-Brut Celebris is showing beautifully out of the gates, offering up sweet aromas of citrus oil, dried white flowers, warm biscuits and nougat, with hints of the dried fruits to come. Medium to full-bodied, racy and layered, with a firm core of fruit that's girdled by tangy acids and a long, penetrating finish, the house's typically tensile style is married with real flesh and weight.
The 2008 Extra-Brut Celebris offers up hints of apricot, brioche, baked apple tart, white pepper, chamomile and dried flowers. Extended time on the lees yields a Champagne with terrific flavor and textural complexity. This is an especially deep, vinous Champagne from Gosset. I would prefer to drink it at the dinner table, as it is a very serious wine.
Such a concise and laser-focused wine with tight layers of crushed stones, praline, frangipani flowers, green apples, lemons, hazelnuts, pastries and salted almonds. Very tight bubbles here. So clear and structured, with a long and mineral finish. Still reserved. 54% chardonnay and 46% pinot noir. 4.8g/L dosage. Drink or hold.