Champagne Philipponnat - Royal Réserve Brut

Philipponnat crafts its wines using exclusively first press juice from the finest grapes, mainly from Premier and Grand Cru plots, and is committed to harvesting grapes when they reach greater maturity than the average in the Champagne wine-growing region. A portion of the wines is fermented or matured in casks, which is exceptional for Champagne; aging in wood gives them greater complexity without in any way coarsening them. Wines are aged in the bottle on lees for three to eleven years. With a distinctive style that does not yield to trends, the House produces a range of Champagnes which are first and foremost wines: flavourful, powerful and well-balanced.

Their aromatic intensity (a particular characteristic of Pinot Noir) provides a common thread and freshness and minerality gives them their structure. This perfect balance between intensity and freshness is maintained with a low dosage. Philipponnat stores the older vintages “neck down” in the “Caveau du Trésor”, to be disgorged on request after a long aging period. The Philipponnat collection offers a full range of wines to be enjoyed on all occasions: each cuvée is well-suited to accompany haute cuisine. The range of three non-vintage and three vintage cuvées is rounded off by the prestige cuvees: Cuvée 1522 and Cuvée 1522 Rosé, Clos des Goisses and Clos des Goisses Juste Rosé.

Royale Réserve Brut is the purest expression of the House’s style. Offering a superb balance between structure, persistence and vinosity, this cuvée reveals the essential character of the Mareuil-sur-Ay terroir (where mainly Pinot Noir grapes are grown, which is predominant in the blend). After three years aging on lees, Royale Réserve Brut is pleasantly mature while losing nothing of its freshness, making it an ideal aperitif wine. Its vinosity enhances white meat, charcuterie and fish.

The village of Ay, home to the Philipponnat family for 16 generations, is clearly recognisable in the antique engraving featured on the label of Cuvée 1522. This exceptional cuvée is blended exclusively from the House’s most outstanding vineyards and grapes, in particular the historic plots at Le Léon in Ay, which give it its body, minerality and distinctive notes of pepper and spices. This is an extra brut Champagne. With meals, it is an excellent match for salt-water fish, such as turbot, and white meat.

Clos des Goisses is the most powerful of all Champagnes. It is produced using grapes grown on a unique, pure chalk hillside with a 45° slope facing due south, in Mareuil-sur-Ay. Its name certainly reveals its true nature; in the old Champagne dialect, Gois or Goisse means a very steep slope. This is always a vintage wine with a very low dosage. Vinified mainly in wooden casks with no malolactic fermentation, it is distinctively full-bodied with an exceptionally long finish. A very great wine as well as being a very great Champagne, Clos des Goisses is specifically intended as an accompaniment to haute cuisine. Mineral and intense, it makes an unforgettable match for dishes with strong flavours: game, truffles, caviar and cheese.