The score for NV Jacques Selosse Initial Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne Grand Cru is 94 from Robert Parker and the tasting note - Disgorged in May 2021, the latest rendition of Selosse's NV Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Initial is showing beautifully, unwinding in the glass with aromas of pear, dried fruits, confit lemon, fenugreek, fresh bread and toasted almonds. Full-bodied, vinous and complex, it's a rich, fleshy Champagne that's underpinned by bright acids and complemented by a pinpoint mousse, concluding with a long, sapid finish. As usual, this bottling derives from the lower-altitude slopes of Avize, Cramant and Oger, where the soils are richer in clay and yields are higher when compared with the vineyards that inform V. O. Over the years, Selosse has increasingly come to focus on what he describes as the "one gram of mineral substance in a liter of grape juice, not the 250 grams of organic matter. Scientists say the vines don't take minerals from the soil, but no one has ever been able to explain to me where that one gram of mineral salts comes from." From this perspective, biological aging and oxidation, informed by a relationship with the wines of Spain—especially the biological maturation of Jerez and the long élevage of Rioja—which began when Selosse first visited the Iberian peninsula in 1972, become ways to "burn away" the organic matter, leaving only the terroir-derived mineral residue that interests him. For the same reason, he privileges texture over aroma. "In the old days, with the tastevin, texture was all-important