Jacques Selosse Initial NV AOC 0,75l

Initial is the Champagne with which Jacques Selosse presents its Blanc de Blancs: pure Chardonnay from the Grand Cru vineyards of Avize, Cramant, and Oger, in the Côte des Blancs, where the chalky marl gives the white wines tension and length.The house is based in Avize. Jacques Selosse settled there after the war and, after years of selling grapes, began bottling his own Champagne. His son Anselme, who had studied oenology in Burgundy, joined the business in 1974 and took it over a few years later; since 2018, his son Guillaume has run it.With Anselme, the house changed course and became a model for winegrowers across the region: low yields, vineyards farmed without synthetic chemicals, grapes harvested ripe, in the belief that a great Champagne begins with a great base wine. In the cellar, only native yeasts ferment the wine in mostly used oak casks, and it remains on the fine lees for a long time, with very little sulfur dioxide.Initial is made by blending three consecutive vintages, with grapes sourced mainly from the lower parcels on the slopes. After the second fermentation, it rests on the lees for a long time, and the dosage remains modest. Each lot has its own disgorgement date, indicated on the back label.This is the style that made the house famous: a full-bodied, broad Champagne, in which the wood and time on the lees add body without taking away the Chardonnay's precision. For this reason, it is treated more like a great white wine than an aperitif: a large glass, not too cold, and a few minutes to breathe, then it pairs beautifully with a meal.In the Selosse range, it is the first of the Blanc de Blancs. Alongside it are Version Originale, from parcels higher up the slopes and with an even lower dosage, Substance, made from a perpetual reserve begun in the 1980s, the vintage wines, and the Champagne wines from individual lieux-dits.In the STELT selection, Initial is the Champagne to start with to discover Jacques Selosse: it already embodies the house style, a Champagne to be understood as a wine of the land.