Winemaker Notes
Golden yellow hue with a hint of green and a fine mousse. Fine nose that is fresh, elegant, and floral. Fresh and balanced palate; hazelnut, quince paste in the long finish.
Blend: 70% Chardonnay & 30% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This Chardonnay-dominant bottling was a staple of my student days, and I have fond memories of the fleshy, outgoing 1997 and the rich, vinous 1999. The latest release is the 2013 Brut Special Club, which was disgorged in August 2021, and it's a real success, wafting from the glass with an expressive bouquet of raspberries, citrus oil, crisp orchard fruit, freshly baked bread and white flowers. Medium to full-bodied, layered and seamless, it's elegantly textural, with a concentrated core of fruit and a mousse that's more refined than Chiquet's wines a decade ago. Given the vintage and its recent disgorgement, this is already quite charming, but its tightly wound core promises considerable aging potential. Best After 2021. Rating: 94+
-
Wine & Spirits
Nicolas Chiquet’s Special Club comes mostly from his home town of Dizy, a blend of pinot noir (38 percent) with chardonnay (10 percent of the chardonnay grown in Aÿ). He ferments it in stainless steel, sustaining the wine’s clean chardonnay freshness against the richer tones of corn silk, toasted grain and vibrant hints of plum. The wine’s creaminess will match langoustines roasted in a wood oven... or shrimp and grits
-
Wine Spectator
This round and balanced Champagne is fresh and well-cut, with a softly creamy bead and delicate flavors of Anjou pear, candied ginger and lemon zest, biscuit and elder flower. Drink now
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’