TN: Jacques Selosse Initial Blanc de Blancs

Disgorged May 6, 2010.

This is a very pretty, deep, rich version of the Initial with intense flavors and great balance.

The color is medium yellow gold and the nose has toasty wheat bread aromas, something like spicy pear fruit, and a touch of minerality. What a beautifull nose. On the palate it is a bit more subdued and it has more finesse then the nose would suggest. The bubbles are super fine but incredibly persistent. The flavors consist of pear and lime fruit along with some of the wheat bread and a touch of smoke and oak. The finish is still a bit agressive and young, and it is really long, long, long!

I think you could wait for it to mellow out on the finish, but every other aspect is so good that it is hard to resist now. A very fine bottle of Champagne!

We have some Version Originale disgorged July 26, 2010 to try next.

I’ve only had this once because of the generosity of a friend. If I could afford it, I would buy cases of this stuff. It’s amazing.

Talk about a producer who makes an NV Champagne that needs some flipping time in the cellar. Holy shamolies.

Our special occasion Champagne used to be Krug Grand Cuvee. I still love it, but my wife has decided Selosse comes in first. So I am stocking up!

This shows much, much better after 5 years in the cellar. I think the VO is even better.

You know of a retailer that has it for a decent price??? I’ve been looking everywhere and it’s crazy how expensive this has gotten.

I’ve been looking for the past year or so for anyone who has it at <$100 and have gone nowhere. Oh well…

I like this better than the Substance. Even with some age this is fresher to me than the Substance which is a solera . Still complex. Excellent note.

This is one of those wines that’s so highly allocated and in such limited supply (with most of it being sold to On Premise - i.e. restaurants) that the little bit that does trickle out to the retail market isn’t likely to be discounted. Short supply meets high demand.


Commercial disclaimer - I represent Solosse in Colorado

Don,

I have tried Sustance twice and based on those bottles I also slightly preferred that extra bit of freshness in Initial. But I imagine there are significant differences in the disgorgements of Substance and maybe there are bottles that I would prefer to Initial?

Also I have not yet tried the VO and it will be interesting to see where it fits in.

Rico, perhaps you have some better insight into the above?

Hey Scott,
Just got an email from Premier Cru – they have it again for $125. Not as good as the $99 a few years ago, but not too bad.

Gone in 30 seconds unfortunately…

Yeah,

I was online when this email hit and tried to add to cart my cart within 3 minutes … gone. Seeing that it was in stock, maybe they only had a few bottles though?

That was too bad as I wanted to pick up a couple at that price…they get it back every now and then - which I guess doesn’t surprise me as it seems to be available in Europe for $90-115 at a variety of places. Only time I bought it for under $100 was a couple years ago from a place in Italy for 65 Euros (seem to be a surprising number of offers on W-S for Selosse in Italy actually) so I’ve resigned myself to having to reload around $120-130.

Does anyone know with Premier Cru if these are direct imports? Or are they through Rare Wine Co?

I thought it was the Contraste that was made in the solera style. I had the Contraste in Dec last year and the Initiale in Jan last year thanks to a generous friend. Both were tasted blind. I preferred the the purity of the Initiale; amazing stuff.

the Substance is very oxidative the Intiale tastes fresher to me as well.
Here is a link to Peter Liem’s notes on why there aren’t more Soleras http://www.peterliem.com/2008/05/why-arent-there-more-soleras.html

Had a bottle of Initiale with some friends from Paris Saturday night. Stunning bubbly. He said it is near impossible to find in Paris and was surprised to see it on the list in NYC.

Last bottle of Selosse I had from PC was direct import.

Just about any Selosse wine is a special treat. What Anselme does is unique and so passionate. Add to that the fact that he is very down to earth and in to helping just about anyone who asks and you can’t help but embrace what he is doing.

And to add to some of the questions/comments in this thread:

  • Selosse loves Italian wine (so much so that he has done some side project work there) and Italy. Add to the fact that he is very popular in Italy (not a surprise) and you have an equation that leads to a good amount of wine heading in that direction.

  • Selosse’s wines have some variability to them and this shows more with age. I’ve had some stunning aged Initiales and just as many very disappointing ones. I almost always love them within 3 years of disgorgement so tend to consume them quite a bit on the younger side as I’m not big on the reward vs. risk scenario for this wine except for the sake of “science”. I’ll also note that I could care less whether or not the Initiale can age or not as it is so tasty in its youth.

  • More and more of Selosse’s wines are now “solera” types. Besides Substance, Contraste was and now each of the Lieu-Dit wines is as well as his liqueur. That leaves the Rose, VO, Initiale, and Millesime as the only non “solera” styled wines.

  • My personal Selosse favorites are the VO and Substance. I find the VO to be the most consistent of the NVs and love the power and purity of this wine that comes out with the extra aging this receives vs. the Initiale.

  • Substance can be hard for some to wrap their arms around. The nose is usually fairly mature, but the palate maintains great freshness. I love the contrast and complexity this brings to the wine. A number of folks use the Solera method in a similar way to Selosse, but none express themselves in quite the same way as Substance.

  • While Selosse can be harder to find, the Initiale is by far the easiest to track down (it represents around 60-66% of his production). The vintage (especially in Mag) and the Lieu-Dit wines are the really tough ones.