Champagne Philipponnat - Clos des Goisses Brut 1996

April de Philipponnat and his family left Switzerland (Fribourg, to be specific) for the small French village of Aÿ-Champagne, in 1522. Later, under the Second Napoleonian Regime (1850-1970), the family started to make its own champagne wine. The “Maison Philipponnat” as a brand was born in 1910, thanks to Auguste and Pierre Philipponnat. Then, in 1935, Pierre bought what would become the crown jewel of the family: the Clos des Goisses, a vineyard located on the Gruguet Hill, in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

This parcel is the biggest and most prestigious one of the entire Champagne region, with its 5.5 hectares (two thirds of Pinot Noir for one third of Chardonnay). Thanks to this monopole, the Maison Philipponnat is able to produce the eponymous champagne. A perfectly balanced mineral wine, which can age gracefully (more than 30 years of cellaring). The size of the Clos des Goisses has grown a bit in 2007, and the vineyard now includes 10 additional ares.

Today, the Maison Philipponnat belongs to the Boizel Chanoine Champagne group, since its sale in 1997 (it previously was a part of the Financière Globe in 1986, and then of the Groupe Marie Brizard). Charles Philipponnat (the son of René Philipponnat, former cellar master of Moët & Chandon) is the maison’s CEO since 2000. He firmly believes in manual labor and long maturation cycles for grapevines. He is also the one who invented the Maison Philipponnat’s famous “Cuvée Sublime”.