Vanessa

9.4

Cheers to a sparkling weekend!

We’re launching into it with this beautiful bottle of grower bubbly produced by H. Goutorbe with 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay hailing from estate vineyards of Aÿ, a coveted terroir in the Grande Vallée de la Marne.

This “Special Club” cuvée comes exclusively from the warm 2015 vintage, which faced hydric stress and drought conditions.

For producers like H. Goutorbe, the vintage yielded fabulously ripe grapes lending supple, plush qualities to their expression in the glass.

The concentration of fleshy fruit character matches well with Goutorbe’s extensive lees aging over the course of many months, finally disgorged in October, 2024 with a Brut level of dosage.

The mousse and mouthfeel are creamy and fine with layers of honeycrisp apple, ripe white peach, mango peel, kumquat, lemon curd, oyster shell, piece crust, brioche, toasted almond, nougat, and chalk. — 4 days ago

with Deked1

Sarah Oettel

9.3

Added at Bar Chimera. — 3 months ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

1999 vintage. Nice fill. Used a Durand. Solid cork with approx 50% saturation. Decanted and tasted after two hours. That decided Lynch-Bages medium heavy bod. Has dropped some, not all, of the overt primary fruit load. Pleasant spices and feminine characteristics easily noted and cataloged. Pretty harmonious now tho with a little chunkiness/tannic blessing as more of a fleeting kiss vs a big hug. Could easily go another decade in this ensemble. 6.14.26. — 4 months ago

Dave Hoffman

9.0

40% Pinot Noir; 40% Gamay; 10% Chardonnay — a year ago

Ed Chin

9.2

Bruised apples and bread that was just fabulously balanced by the acidity. I would have scored higher if the bubbles were more present. — 2 years ago

Kendall Johnson

9.2

Crisp and bright — 5 years ago

Katie

9.3

Great for the price! — 6 years ago

"Odedi"

9.1

Pale lemon in color.

Strong nose and medium in body with medium plus acidity.

Dry on the palate with nice complexity, and medium plus size bubbles.

Showing limes, lemons, green apples, light earth, yeast, herbs, light brioche and minerals.

Nice finish with limes and light marzipan notes.

This is a very tasty 10 year old Champagne. Rich and fresh tasting. Complex and interesting.

Still very young, and needs 5 years in the bottle to mature properly. Will continue to age nicely in the next 10 to 15 years.

Easy drinking, nicely balanced and better after 45 minutes of airtime.

Good by itself or with food.

A blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Aged for 6 years on the lees. Disgorged in 2023.

12.5% alcohol by volume.

91 points.

$130. — 17 days ago

Garen Staglin

9.4

Chewy and wonderful. — 18 days ago

Shay A

9.5

94-95

A grower champagne I always enjoy, but I’ve not had their special club offering with this much age before. I’ve been missing out! A stunner!

54% Cramant, 31% Chouilly (both Grand Crus), with 15% Cuis (Premier Cru); all old vines. Disgorged July 2012; 6g/l dosage

This may be an example of hitting lightening in a bottle, but this caught me (and others I was with) totally off-guard at how youthful it was…and more importantly, how unbelievably good it was. Channeling an oxidative flair at this point in its evolution, this scratched the itch for creamy, powerful, golden champagne. Autolysis on full display (in the best way) with lemon scone, honey roasted cashews, spiced pears aromatically. Honeyed graham crackers, lemon cream, Biscotti cookie, kiss of ginger and plenty of chalky limestone grit toward the finish (but the sweet autolysis lengthens it out beautifully). For me, this tasted like this was the exact right day to catch this wine at peak.

I wish I had a case of these. — 3 months ago

Doug Powers

9.5

Fabulous vintage Champagne, tight bubbles, moderately rich but super long finish, excellent!! — a year ago

with Jim

Brendan Baker

9.2

Green apple and pear, salted lemon, baguette, med acid ✨ — 3 years ago

Manj Gunawardane

9.1

Rich but not over the top and not too revealing on the nose or palate. Tasty nonetheless. Maybe a little maturity to settle in. — 6 years ago

Severn G

9.6

Happy Father's Day 2020 to all; I'm posting pictures of our fur-kids, an independent and somewhat self-interested bunch. Two boys (9) and two girls (3), all rescued from various locations across the East Coast of the US. They generally bring the utmost of joy to my life on a daily basis.

Nose has blackberry jam on moist leather, minor cedar, very light barnyard notes, grilled blackberry,
blueberry compote, brewed dark roasted coffee, wet garden soil, chocolate vines candy and dried orange peel.

Palate has over-ripe blackberry, wet tanned leather, dark chocolate syrup, dehydrated black cherry, chocolate covered blueberry and moist cedar.

Silky smooth, intense finish running +2m, still showing tannins. Expect this bottle to easily hold another 10+ years without concern, in proper storage.

Decanted ~5h. Paired with well salted (in advance), medium-rare, grilled NY strip steaks from my favorite, local farmer in Columbia Co. NY (Kinderhook Farm) and sauted, early season, baby squash in ozro with our garden herbs.

INAUGURAL vintage on this wine, I certainly didn't realize that fact when we bought it in September 2005! This has been in storage for the prior 15 years, just coming back home in January 2020.

Merlot 50% / Cabernet Sauvignon 40% / Petit Verdot 10% — 6 years ago

Gage Orion

9.1

Flowers and plums.. super tasty stuff. Had with sushi for my birthday Sunday! Fantastic. — 23 days ago

Vanessa

9.3

😍 Marc Hébrart’s Special Club 2019 is one of those bottles that reminds us why we fell in love with “grower champagne” in the first place.
 
💯 It’s generous without being heavy. Structured without being stern. A masterclass in elegance, energy, and purity, not to mention it’s utterly delicious even in relative youth.

🍇 Pinot Noir plays a lead role in this particular cuvée joined by Chardonnay for extra lift and brightness. The grapes hail from the Premier and Grand Cru villages of Louvois, Chouilly, & Mareuil-sur-Ay.

⚖️ After 36 months aging sur lie, this wine was disgorged and bottled with a “brut” dosage, which melds a soft energy into its steely profile, creating balance and tension.
  — a month ago

with Deked1

John Howard

Harvest production at Hirsch and Cobb Wineries

9.3

One of the best 1er champs for the $. Best to get off the wagon too. — 5 months ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.4

2014 vintage. From a 375ml effort. Tasted after being open for 1.5 hours and in the 48-50 degree range. Heavy bod. Plenty of candied orange fruit and unfiltered honey/mead. Just starting to get “interesting.” Needs another decade to add the ole pizzazz. 3.21.26. — 7 months ago

Christian Fischer

9.1

Very young. Still somewhat unstructured and tannins that need to mellow. But good potential. — 2 years ago

Willie Carter

9.3

Well they’ve done it again. Who is they? Why Cédric Moussé and the Club Trésors de Champagne of course. Another superstar bottle from them.

A muted pale lemon color with an effusive stream of tiny bubbles. Aromas of honeyed almonds, peaches, and crushed herbs. Fresh cherries and apricots sparkle here. Toasty brioche bread and chalky minerality show after some time with green apples being quite dominant after receiving some air.

The Master of Meunier and here it shows. 100% Pinot Meunier from the village of Cuisles located in the Vallee de la Marne. This Special Club offering is from one plot of land, giving it its name, Les Fortes Terres. Disgorged on 10/21/19 with a dosage of 1 g/l, this is refreshingly stark with beautifully racy acidity.

Full bodied and bold on palate, the complexity and purity of the Meunier shines through. Butterscotch and apples start the party off with more cherries and citrus playing along. A nice long, dry finish. Vibrant and captivating. Moussé and Special Club champagnes never disappoint. — 5 years ago