Jean Marc Seleque - Extra Brut Rose Solessence Lot 2016

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Jean Marc Seleque Description

"Jean-Marc Sélèque is one of the brightest young stars in Champagne!"
–John Gilman, A View from the Cellar, issue 69, July 2017

An unusually complex, small production (~550 cases annually), dry (Extra Brut) rosé champagne made with a blend of reds--Meunier from Seleque's parcel of Les Charmes macerated over two days and Pinot Noir still wine from Les Gayères--blended into the Solessence cuvée along with 40% reserve wine.

Today all of Seleque's parcels are practicing organic. As with many grower-champagne producers today, improved farming practices have yielded better fruit, allowing him to make changes in the cellar including slower and gentler fermentations, reduced dosage levels and abandoning fining and filtration.

The domain, which was founded by Jean-Marc's father in 1964, encompasses 22 acres of vines across 7 different villages. The average vine age is a notable 40 years of age (positively wizened by Champagne standards!). Most of the vines grow in the communes of Pierry and then Moussy, followed by Epernay, Mardeuil, Dizy, Vertus, and Boursault. Some 50% of the vines are Chardonnay; 40% are Pinot Meunier; and 10% are Pinot Noir.

A View from the Cellar: 92 Points

The new release of Jean-Marc Sélèque’s “Solessence” Extra Brut Rosé is Lot 2016 and obviously, hails from that vintage. It is comprised of a blend of forty-five percent chardonnay, forty percent pinot meunier and fifteen percent pinot noir and was disgorged in July of 2018, with a finishing dosage of three grams per liter. The wine is superb on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet delivering a fine combination of strawberries, rhubarb, orange zest, chalky soil tones, rye bread and a topnote of dried rose petals. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and beautifully balanced, with a rock solid core, frothy mousse and great length and grip on the complex and focused finish. This is first class Rosé! - John Gilman