Champagne Caze-Thibaut Jossias Rose Extra Brut

When Fabien Cazé was admitted into the Terres et Vins de Champagne collective — alongside Bérêche, Agrapart, and Chartogne-Taillet — after only his second release, it confirmed what his wines already argued: that the western Marne Valley deserves parcel-level scrutiny, not just blending anonymity. The Jossias Rosé Extra Brut 2018 is built on that conviction.

The fruit originates from Châtillon-sur-Marne and Vandières on the Rive Droite — east- and south-facing slopes over clay-limestone with sandy clay topsoil above chalk bedrock. That chalk proximity drives the vertical, saline tension that defines the house even in a warm year. 2018 was the estate's first certified-organic vintage, and the season's heat produced atypically opulent, full-bodied fruit — a rare departure from the house's leaner default register.

Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts, split between stainless steel and a combination of 228–350 L oak barrels in the 19th-century vaulted chalk cellar on rue des Crayères in Venteuil, where low ambient temperatures inhibit malolactic conversion — a deliberate structural choice. Dosage is set by blind tasting prior to disgorgement, landing in the Extra Brut range (1.7–2.7 g/L). The wine is unfined and unfiltered.

What no peer in the western Marne does at this scale: Fabien treats Pinot Meunier — historically the region's workhorse blending grape — as a terroir-transparent variety worthy of parcellaire bottling, then strips away MLF and dosage to let chalk speak directly through it. The 2018 vintage's generosity softens the house's characteristic austerity without erasing it; drink now through 2030.