Filaine/Alexandre Brut Champagne Sensuum Vertigo 2016

96 points William Kelley (Wine Advocate): "Fabrice Gass tends to prefer his cuvée DMY to his vintage bottling, finding the latter more complex and less monolithic, yet even he was forced to admit that it's hard to fault the 2016 Brut Millésimé Cuvée Sensuum Vertigo. Unwinding in the glass with scents of mirabelle plum, pear, sweet spices, freshly baked bread, walnuts and praline, it's full-bodied, layered and seamless, with a deep core of fruit, racy acids and an animating pinpoint mousse. It's a beautiful wine that will richly reward aging on cork. Drink: 2025-2045. (Aug 2022)"

96 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "I was delighted to find out that the 2016 vintage of Sensuum Vertigo had just landed as I was wrapping up this feature on Fabrice Gass and his beautiful Champagnes. The 2016 version is composed from its customary blend of fifty-five percent pinot noir, thirty percent chardonnay and fifteen percent pinot meunier and was finished with a dosage of four grams per liter. As is customary, it is still quite a young wine out of the blocks and it would be sheer madness to open a bottle over the next few years, as it has a lovely spine of acidity and deserves some more bottle age to relax a bit structurally and completely blossom. The bouquet is pure and beautifully complex, wafting from the glass in a mix of white peach, apple, hazelnuts, chalky minerality, dried flowers, just a whisper of old oak and a lovely topnote of incipient smokiness. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and racy, wit a rock solid core of fruit, superb soil signature and grip, elegant mousse and a long, nascently complex and zesty finish of impeccable balance and stunning promise. Try to be patient, as this wine will drink so, so much better six to eight years down the road than it is today! 2032-2075. (Mar/Apr 2024)"