Champagne Mousse Fils

I met Cedric and Julie in Reims last year and have become really quite enthralled by these wines. Vineyard-driven, through the lens of Meunier and with low (or zero) dosage to obscure the picture with sugar.

L’Or d’Eugene NV
Red-fruited and surprisingly delicate, bone dry, style with clear influence of the solera ‘Perpetual Reserve’ that makes up 50% of the blend. The nose is subtle, with both red berries and red apple fruit, and a depth that signifies a degree of age and maturity - from the solera. It’s hard to see where MLF ends and some autolytic richness begins but there’s a distinct creaminess to the texture. Plenty of energy on the mid-palate and the balance between the bone dry cut of the low dosage and the amplitude of the Pinot Meunier fruit is very cleverly managed. Finishes with spicy red fruit.
90/100

L’Extra Or NV
Same as L’Or d’Eugene but late disgorged after 48 months on lees and zero dosage. Slightly deeper colour and a striking nose that’s both slightly waxy and, instead of yeast autolysis, seems markedly saline and marine. Bracingly dry and cutting a line straight through the palate, this hums with an electrical energy. Flavours of preserved lemon and berries. It has many more layers than the L’Or d’Eugene and greater intensity through the mid-palate and finish. Great, cleansing, cut on the finish.
93/100

Les Vignes de Mon Village NV
Much more conventional in style. Nose has berries, some floral tones and buttered toast autolysis. Shows more primary fruit that the Solera wines, with immediate volume on the palate but the very dry style keeps the overall profile lean, linear and mineral. Impressive mid-palate complexity. A different, more fruit-driven and primary expression of Meunier, yet with real grip and drive toward the finish that is long and lingering.
92/100

Special Club Les Fortes Terres 2015
Pale gold. Nose shows intensity, spice, patisserie autolysis and brioche richness. Immediately fills the palate with scent. Lots of volume and blossom characters here. More floral than fruit-led. Clearly quite a rich, generous vintage with the acidity tempered by cream and barrel influence. It is layered in the mid-palate and caressing, rather than driving, on the finish. Finely balanced and feels ‘crafted’ rather than chiselled - by which I mean the delicacy that seems to characterise the style here. Finishes very lifted and aerial.
94/100

Special Club Rose de Saignee Les Bouts de la Ville 2016
The most singlular wine in the range. A strikingly deep - saignee - rose. Everything about this is intensely vinous. It is dry, full-bodied and authoritative, with significant amplitude on the palate. The fruit characters are of intense red berries and strawberries, with the sweetness of ripe fruit and then a markedly dry, driving profile. There’s almost a natural wine element to this - wild and uncompromising. Unique, really quite concentrated and extremely vinous, this won’t be for everyone but is extremely impressive in its style and I can see it being brilliant in the right food context.
92/100

Had the L’Or d’Eugene a month or so back, was pretty darn lovely stuff. Good balance with youthful zingy fruit and more mature characteristics from the perpetual blend.

However, I wouldn’t say perpetual reserve is the same thing as solera, because they really are not - just as any oak barrel isn’t a barrique, or any clay pot isn’t a kvevri, a barrel containing a multi-vintage blend doesn’t make a solera. Many Champagne producers say that they have a “solera” reserve, but I’m not sure if anybody else than Selosse has a true solera and everybody else seems to use the term just because it sounds cool, not because it is accurate.

I’ve seen the term “pseudo-solera”, which seems about right.

Solera-style has been used by some as well.

I like soleresque.

+1

Although I think “Reserve Perpetuelle” looks better on the label.

Solerish?

I’ve only met Cedric and Julie in the boutique in Reims, rather than visiting the winery in Cuisles, so am not sure of the precise nature of their solerium. That said, surely the defining characteristic of the pseudo-perpetua-reserva-solera is the fractional blending? How is that not built by adding 50% of the new vintage each year? My understanding is that it’s the fractional blending that Cedric’s aiming for. Must confess that it’s me that threw the solera word into this and not the estate, they call it a perpetual reserve.

They both employ fractional blending, but as I said above, they are not the same thing. Even if the end result is the same, you can’t use one word for another, if it has already an established meaning. Solera system is reserved for a system with multiple tiers where the barrel/barrels typically closest to the floor (“solera”) is the only tier that is used. In a perpetual reserve system a producer might have multiple barrels, but none of them is used to replenish the other, but instead wine is drawn out from all of them and all the barrels are replenished at the same time.

Furthermore, a solera requires much more effort froma producer, since it encompasses several barrels’ worth of reserve wine, whereas a perpetual reserve is just one barrel. Furthermore, a perpetual reserve is less reliable, since once it goes bad (gets heavily oxidized, turns volatile, etc.) all the reserve wine is lost. However, when one barrel in a solera gets bad, it can be removed and replaced in the future without compromising the whole reserve.

Must confess that it’s me that threw the solera word into this and not the estate, they call it a perpetual reserve.

Yes I know. Fortunately some producers are quite exact in that they opt to use “Perpetual Reserve” when they are using such, and not a true solera system.

Otto,

Selosse doesn’t utilize a true Solera either. It is closer than most, but still doesn’t meet the true definition of a Solera where you are taking from one barrel and filling another. From what I can best understand, it mixes a ‘kind of’ perpetual reserve and some other individually held reserve blends that are then combined to get close to what a true Solera aged wine would be/see. I had a good talk with Guillame about this the last time I visited.

Hopefully many of you attended the excellent Zoom we had here on WB, or if not, watched the video of it (which you can find in the thread).

Good to know! Can you describe in more in-depth how it works?

From what I’ve understood - both reading about it and from a few friends who have visited Selosse multiple times - is that it isn’t a true solera in the sense that the one layer (criadera) of barrels doesn’t feed into another layer barrels, but instead to a large stainless steel tank. However, it is solera in the sense that you have multiple criaderas, unlike a perpetual reserve, which is just a one reserve into which wines are added into and drawn out from.

But if I’ve understood correctly how it works, then I can understand how it mixes solera and perpetual reserve: basically you have the first criadera of barrel-fermented wines that are aged for as long as deemed necessary, then the second criadera isn’t an actual criadera (a set of barrels) but a big perpetual reserve tank of reserve wines which serves as the solera criadera all pooled together. So yes, it doesn’t meet the Jerez definition of solera which is composed of small barrels only, but it is solera and not perpetual blend in the sense that it is not just one barrel but instead a system that employs multiple criaderas.

And IIRC Selosse might’ve had also some perpetual blends as well which are separate altogether from their solera system.

Otto,

I’m not 100% on anything Selosse as sometimes Anselme says one thing on one visit and something different on the next (to keep me on my toes), but the last time I visited, I talked with Guillaume about Substance and whether it was a true Solera as this always seemed a bit of a mystery to me. Guillaume said it wasn’t a true Solera, but rather a bland of different barrels that were meant to approximate a Solera. From what he told me and what I saw, I take this as meaning that Selosse is approximating a Solera without the actual criaderas and more by his calculations and what is available. It seemed to be more of a ‘we will mix this barrel with these and then we will mix these with those and eventually they will go into a foudre or vat’. Someone else might have more details, but it definitely was not a true Solera by definition in my book. The Lieux-Dits are essentially perpetual blends.

The other interesting perpetual-type blend that some Champagne producers use is to take the full blend of one year and use it as a year-over-year reserve. For example, you start with a pure vintage 2004 as your first release and then keep some of it as reserve. The next year you use this 2004 as your reserve and add it to your 2005 based blend. You then take this 2005 based blend (with the 2004 reserves) and add it to the 2004 reserve. In 2006, you use the reserve that now comes from your 2005 and 2004 based releases to make the final wine and then add this complete 2006 based blend back into the reserve blend. In 2007, you use reserves blended from your 2006, 2005, and 2004 based releases to make the new wine and then add this into the reserve blend. Etc, etc, etc… Essentially, your NV wine blend of each year becomes a kind of perpetual reserve, but with the potential for more complexity and a bit more similarity to a Solera than a typical perpetual blend where you just add a single new year each harvest. This also seems to help keep producer style consistent with the NV.

This is great info, Brad, thanks. Do most houses keep their reserve wines in tank? I assume with the volume of wine that barrels would be prohibitively expensive for many producers, to say nothing of the evaporation.

Sean,

In general, yes, most producers keep their reserves in tank regardless of whether they ferment and/or age in oak for the first part of their life. That being said, large wood foudres are becoming more and more common for aging reserve wines and keeping a perpetual reserve. Some folks like to mix a blend of steel, wood foudre, and clay/concrete too learn the differences of each vessel. The biggest problem with smaller oak vessels and reserve wines is the mix of a maturing wine and oxidation. Steel allows for the wines to stay more reductive especially when there is still some lees contact. Large foudres can do the same. Keeping the wine in a small barrel can work for a limited amount of time or if the goal is a still wine product, but not so much for a reserve wine you want to keep more than 1-2 years.

thanks for the feedback on these. ive been curious about them as its a pretty reasonable special club price

I love the Mousse et fils Special Club Saignee rose. However, I do not see any of the Saignee Rose Les Bouts de la Ville yet in the US.