If the key to understanding Billecart-Salmon is balance, with Gosset it is acidity and power. It is no coincidence that like Billecart they are, and always have been, family owned. But there the comparisons cease. Gosset does not allow any of its wines to go through malolactic fermentation - one of two houses I can immediately think of who practise this. The retention of the harder malic acid is difficult to get right as one thing that few Champagnes lack is acidity. Here though, the very high quality fruit and the use of small oak barrels for fermentation gives a richness and power to the wines that `absorbs` that acid. The integration of this natural and oxidative production style makes wines which as well as being delicious now, will age beautifully in a good cellar.