Veuve Clicquot: 2017 Vins Clairs

In March, we met with Veuve Clicquot’s current Chief Winemaker, Gaëlle Goossens, to get an overview of vintage 2017. Goossens, who joined the house from Bollinger in 2016, is a true oenologist. Young and progressive, as she shared her vision of winemaking for the future, her passion for improving the art of champagne production was evident. “We need to bridge the gap between the vineyards and oenology,” she told us. Goossens believes that by focusing on the main material of their trade – wine, oenologists have been overlooking the initial ingredient – grape. “We should focus more on the vineyard… by looking at amino acids and which tastes each specific acid produces,” she added.

This proposed merge of oenology and viticulture is a fascinating perspective. Given the rate at which technology in winemaking is advancing, a future in which taste profiles can be predicted from the biochemical structure of vines – long before the wine itself is produced – is not a wholly unimaginable concept. That said, such technology may not have helped in 2017, where the timing of the harvest caught the region off-guard.

“We are not used to early harvests in Champagne… we don’t know how to deal with the maturity,” Goossens said. The harvest came as a surprise to many last year, with some growers even on holiday in late-August, when picking started. “Everyone was panicking during the harvest,” she said. Unfortunately, due to the wet, hot and humid weather in August, botrytis had spread throughout many vineyards and the effect on the grapes was tangible. “We had to refuse delivery of a lot of grapes,” Goossens told us, reflecting what we’d heard at other houses. As such, sorting of the grapes this year was key. The Veuve Clicquot philosophy? “If you wouldn’t eat the grape, then don’t use it.”

Vins Clairs 2017

Introducing the vins clairs, Goossens summarised 2017 as a “a difficult year, but good for Chardonnay.” The Chardonnay we tasted was from Chouilly, an area fortunately unaffected by rot last year. The wine was clean, fresh and rich and consequently featured heavily in the 2017 Yellow Label NV blend. Both the Pinots we sampled were from the Vallé de la Marne. The Pinot Meunier was from Souilly, a small village to the east of the region that was amongst the least affected last year. However, it was the Pinot Noir that bore the brunt of the weather. The base wine we sampled was from Aÿ, a typically high-quality Grand Cru that succumbed to widespread rot in 2017. “Heavy rain followed by warm sunshine created tropical conditions for 44 hours, which didn’t help,” Goossens said.

In some of the worst cases last year, the impact of botrytis on the grapes was visual. However, the most common detection methods are unsurprisingly smell and taste and there are two undesirable qualities in particular that winemakers in Champagne look out for. The first is ACF (Arôme de Champignon Frais), which translates as ‘fresh mushroom aromas’ and is detectable on the nose. The second is GMT (Les Goûts Moisis Terreux), which means ‘earthy, mouldy, flavours’ which are noticeable on the palate as a musty, mildewy taste.

ACF and GMT appear to be on the rise in the region. The percentage of wines that Clicquot are noticing them in has risen from 5% in 2009, to 12% in 2011, to over 30% in 2017. “Some musts [last year] seemed okay initially, but the aromas came back around November/December,” Goossens said. The winemaking team had to taste all of the wines for the Yellow Label NV blend three times – they kept changing their minds about the same wines as they kept evolving.