DOMAINE JACQUES SELOSSE

Champagne, France

After managing the Domaine Jacques-Selosse together since 1980, they started a new adventure in 2011 by opening the Les Avisés hotel-restaurant.

Originally, lack of space and a need for more room for ageing wines pushed Anselme Selosse to take a look at the unoccupied cellars of the Bricout-Delbeck Champagne House, created in Avize in 1966 and closed in 2003. Above there was a large town house, which Anselme and Corinne Selosse immediately thought of turning into a hotel and gastronomic centre. The idea was to give it the atmosphere of a family house, which would be a meeting point for all and would give visitors the feeling that they knew the place well, that they had lived there.

It is a mish-mash of different styles and eras, but this diversity gives it its soul. The house has the advantage of having a view over the vines. On three sides you can observe the vines and the seasonal vineyard activities, tractors, smoke and grape-pickers. The house is built right on the hillside, which gives access to both the 'crowned mountain' and the plain. An ideal location to make you aware of how Champagne has its source in a unique geography. -Anselme Selosse

In 1820, Charles Koch, heir to a family of German hotel-keepers from Heidelberg, moved to Avize, created a Champagne House and built the town house that now houses the Les Avisés hotel-restaurant. For Champagne lovers Avize's Château Koch, associated with wine production for almost two centuries, is a place filled with emotion and memories.

In 1949 Jacques Selosse, Anselme's father, created in Avize the domain, which still bears his name, with his wife. Anselme took over the estate in 1974.

Domaine Jacques Selosse produces 57,000 bottles of Champagne every year from grapes grown and harvested on 7.5 ha of vines spread over Chardonnay plots in the Côte des Blancs — Avize, Cramant, Oger, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger — and a few Montagne de Reims plots, dedicated to growing Pinot Noir, in Aÿ, Ambonnay and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ.

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