David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.5

Happy holidays. 🎅🧑‍🎄 ☃️ 🎄 🎁 ❄️

This is delicious. When it first hits your palate, it’s like hey, woah. It is super soft, micro-micro oxygenation. Delicate mousse, some maltiness, red apple cider reduction, pear, lemon meringue, lime pulp, grapefruit, orange peel, tropical melon, ripe pineapple, saline, sea fossils, chalky powder with an edge as it sets, white spice-ginger, white pepper, love the perfect limestone powder, brioche, baguette, some dough & light yeast, orange blossoms, white, spring flowers, racy, crisp acidity, excellent tension, structure, balance with beautiful long finish that lingers 90-120 seconds. Certainly one of the best and different champagne I’ve had in some time.

This cuvée is 100% Chardonnay and comes from the villages of Cramant, Chouilly, and Cuis.

Special Club Champagne must be produced with grapes from outstanding vintages harvested from the estates own vineyards. The cuvée must also be estate bottled and aged. It is the tête de cuvée(the most premier bottle of a grower’s estate) selection for the Champagne house.

There were 12 founding members, three of which currently remain: Pierre Gimonnet, Gaston Chiquet and Paul Bara. New members come and go every year. As of 2021, there are 28 members.

The process to become a Special Club is as follows. The wines must pass two rigorous stages of selection. Before that happens, members gather each February to taste each other’s still wines from the previous vintage. The members vote on whether to declare a vintage year, which would mean that the vintage was outstanding, and worthy enough of a vintage-dated Champagne. The vote must be unanimous. — 5 months ago

Gina Russoniello

10

Easy to drink and balanced — 5 years ago

Ryan Vento

9.4

Fantastic selection and a perfect accompaniment to sushi night. Very floral with dried pineapple, lemon zest, orange rind, grapefruit, and rain-drenched slate.
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Base wine vintage: 2013.
70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay.
Disgorged: 03.2018
Dosage: 2,7gr/l — 5 years ago

with Krystal

Pooneet K

9.2

Very nice Cornas from a producer I haven’t had before. Great selection by the somm at Daniel to go with relatively meaty second and third courses. Ever so slightly “modern” in terms of the seamlessness and hint of oak. But really a very nice wine with great dark fruit, pepper, olive, everything you’d want from a northern Rhone. Nice acid on the finish too. — a year ago

Harry Pratt

10

A Joe’s Club selection. A very good Chardonnay. — 3 years ago

Severn Goodwin

9.4

A great reward for a very long day of outside chores; lawn, extensive plantings in the gardens, harvest in the early Fall might be the end of me this year. I hope we have enough canning jars!?

Prior notes apply, and then some, worthy of the score alone on the nose. Palate is amazing, slightly better than prior bottles. Last bottle on this stellar NV selection. Need to get more cellar depth on this one.

Stunning out of Riedel Vinum Champagne glasses! — 4 years ago

Ryan Vento

9.3

Excellent Champagne for Saturday morning breakfast. Bright, airy, crisp, acidic, citrusy. Very delicate, tight precision in the bubbles. Love this selection. — 6 years ago

with Krystal

Steve Anderson

9.4

Beautiful. @Lyle Fass selection, but purchased by me at auction — 2 years ago

Mark Howard

9.3

Excellent selection to celebrate Lauren’s birthday 🎂! Very clean, elegant, powerful pinot flavors, crisp without the high brioche toasty finish. Well done and happy birthday to Lauren. 🎉🍾 🎁 — 4 years ago

with Elizabeth

Alex Gualino

9.0

TOURAINE CHENONCEAUX
Appellation Touraine Protégé
La Bruyère - Récolte 2016

The vineyards of AOC Touraine-Chenonceaux, which include 27 municipalities, extend over a reduced area on both banks of the Cher River and are an integral part of the Loire Valley, one of the 7 European vineyards listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is also one of the Loire's most recently established appellations in the large AOC Touraine family.

Established in 2016, the AOC Touraine-Chenonceaux is named after the famous Château de Chenonceau spanning the Cher RIver. Domaine La Bruyère's 20 hectares are located on the secondary valleys of Loir-et-Cher; an array of hillside plots grounded on clay-limestone-siliceous soils mixed with a layer of flint (known as Perruches), which take advantage of the micro-climate of the Cher Valley by showing good complexity and stylistically sitting between Sancerre and Brouilly.

Pierre Chainier source classic Loire varietal wines, as well as owning some excellent properties throughout the region. For both elements of their wine business, they look to principles of agriculture raisonné alongside the most modern wine-making techniques. Within Touraine, they have significant vineyard holdings and 7 domaines, including Domaine de La Bruyère in this newly established appellation of Touraine-Chenonceaux. Conversely, Clos de Nouys, their 25 acre estate, is one of the oldest in the AOC Vouvray. Here vines average 35 years of age and Clos de Nouys' parcels of vines were already listed among the best sites on geological maps dating from 1907.

Made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes (they also grow Sauvignon Rose), their Touraine-Chenonceaux Blanc is the result of a rigorous selection process, both of parcels at harvest and of particular cuvées. Vines are cultivated following the principles of sustainable agriculture. The final wine rests on lees for six months before bottling. With its clear robe of golden hues, fresh and round on the palate, this white wine reveals aromas of citrus with notes of white, buttery flowers. An intense citrus nose: candied lemon and orange, developing into apricot and lime, about to turn into brioches. Beautifully fresh and vibrant, once chilled, it will perfectly partner with white meat dishes, fish and seafood (including Sushi) or goat cheese. Or depart from traditional Sauvignon pairings and try with exotic and intense flavors, such as Tagines or Indian Curries. — 5 years ago

with Mark