In the small commune of Taissy, a Premier Cru Village just a few miles southeast of the city of Reims, Champagne’s beating heart, you’ll find the small maison of Champagne Gondé-Rousseaux. Didier Gondé and Edith Rousseaux, parents of the current winemaker Florian Gondé, founded the estate in 1976, with a little less than 4 hectares of vineyards planted to a mix of chardonnay, meunier, and pinot noir.

The focus at the estate has always been on single vineyards and micro-productions. They choose to farm their plots organically and biodynamically to extract the most complexity and energy from their small farm. They use very little sulfur in the production process and avoid any non-natural additives or treatment whenever possible. Attention to detail is what they rely on to make clean, vibrant, and singularly expressive wines – and based on what we’ve tasted so far – this is done quite well, indeed.

After nearly two years on the lees, Création Cuvee’s floral and lightly oxidative wine leads with a soft mousse and light gold color. Heady and enticing aromas of dry sherry turn to fresh sensations of orange blossom, and cherries. The first sip is loaded with impeccable freshness and class, giving more cherries, then raspberry jam, complemented by flint and smoke, with a zippy and pithy orange peel character that uplifts the sweet fruit core into the realm of elegance. Bright acidity keeps this purring, and a warming, spiced note develops on the long and seamless finish. This is really quite delectable stuff – a perfect showcase of complexity and depth, harmony and balance, that would compete in a class of far more expensive Champagnes. 

This Création cuvee utilizes a base of the 2014 vintage that relies on a blend of 30% chardonnay, 30% meunier, and 30% pinot noir, with the final 10% being a blend of their unique reserve cuvee. Small lots of grapes are pressed separately, with a natural settling and fermentation to follow. Malolactic conversion is blocked to preserve freshness, and the vin clair sees a careful aging of at least six months on the gross lees to build texture and roundness. From there, blending and bottling commence – with aging in bottle for a total of seven years prior to disgorgement, and a tiny dosage of just 1.5 grams per liter added in July of 2022. It’s impeccable – and its price even more so. I secured as much as I could – but there is little enough to go around, and I’m afraid it won’t be enough to survive for long! Get a handful, ‘cause a single bottle of this delightful bubbly simply won’t do!