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Wine Description
The Story
Anselme’s purest expression of terroir is of course the famed Substance, a solera created in 1986. By marrying some twenty vintages, he removes vintage variation, allowing the Avize terroir to speak on its own.
Substance is one of the most sought after of Selosse’s wines.
Substance is a Blanc de Blancs sourced from two prime vineyards in Avize, Les Chantereines and Les Marvillannes, and is aged in a solera that was founded in 1986. The intention of Substance is to be a pure reflection of terroir transcending individual vintages.
Substance offers a bottomless, constantly evolving complexity. There seems to be nuance piled upon nuance. Every component, whether it’s minerality, spice, florality or fruit, seems to go through an endless number of iterations.
95 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Selosse’s NV Extra Brut Substance Disg. 04/2013 represents the current state of a solera begun in 1986 and based on the same two sites that inform his basic vintage bottling. (This cuvee is routinely disgorged in the last quarter of each year, but due to the theft of stocks when his cellar was broken into early this year, Selosse interpolated an additional small disgorgement.) “‘Substance’ expresses the blood line,” he explains “whereas ‘Millesime’ expresses individual personality.” There is a sweet as well as toasty sense of nut concentrates; an aura of autumn foliage; decadent lees character; as well as hints of beeswax, toasted buckwheat, peach kernel, smoky black tea, and of course flor. Yet amid all of those arguably oxidative or biologically evolved elements are succulent juiciness of white peach and fresh albeit bittersweet floral perfumes. That the base wines here are exposed to 70% new barrique is not in any way obvious, and what subtle suggestions of lanolin, spice or resin are present merely add new layers to this profoundly multifarious experience. Nor have controlled oxidation or new wood in any way deprived this cuvee of traits that cry out for mineral descriptors. I am forced to refer to “chalk,” “salt,” and “alkali” for lack of better choices, and to point to a maritime sense of depth that helps lead to mouthwatering as well as profoundly layered finishing savor.