Term:
Champagne Blanc De Blanc
Consumption temperature:
10
Bernard, Marie-France, Arnaud et Karine Margaine
Une maison fondée au début du XXe siècle par Gaston Margaine. Les vignes se situent uniquement sur la commune de Villers-Marmery (Premier Cru).
Beau Champagne cuvée Traditionnelle brut (88% Chardonnay, 12% Pinot Noir) assemblage sur 3 années avec une majorité de 2007, intense au nez, tout en bouche, aux connotations fruitées persistantes avec des nuances de pomme, alliant rondeur et vivacité, de robe très claire.
Le Champagne Premier Cru Blanc De Blancs Spécial Club 2004, 100% mono cru Villers-Marme, est de jolie robe dorée, très rond, très fruité, de bouche puissante et persistante, de mousse onctueuse et très fine, aux notes d'amande et de miel.
L'Extra brut Blanc De Blancs, (récolte 2003), est tout en délicatesse, où dominent les agrumes et les petits fruits secs, tout en persistance aromatique, alliant distinction et structure, un Champagne ample et floral, de bouche franche et fraîche. Joli brut rosé tout en fruits, parfumé en finale.
The Special Club:
Summing Up the Movement for Terroir Expression in Champagne in Just One Bottle
Champagne’s Special Club is a unique collection of 26 Grower-Producers who all have the common goal of promoting the expression of terroir in the region. Their efforts and the wines that result are the best argument for the further exploration of specific terroirs in Champagne. It serves as a jury of peers that ensures that every Special Club bottle sold is of exceptional quality.
The Special Club or Club Trésors de Champagne (Treasures of Champagne) was created in 1971. The rules for membership are simple: one must grow their own grapes. All members must be legally designated as Récoltant-Manipulants. The wines are all put in the same unique bottle, regardless of producer, but each wine maker gets to put their own label on the bottle. The wines all taste different from each other because they come from different villages/grapes, but they all have a commonality of being extraordinary.
How do they decide what wines go into the Special Club bottle?
The Special Club bottling is supposed to represent a grower’s best offering. Each year the members of the club meet and taste each other’s vin claire (still base wine) to see if it is up to quality standards. A member is not required to submit wine ever year, only when they think they’ve made something spectacular; in 2003 no Special Club wines were made.
Once the Club has agreed that the base wine is of sufficient quality, the grower is then permitted to put the wine in the Special Club bottle and induce the second fermentation. After a minimum of 3 years of aging, the wine may be disgorged and tasted a second time by the Club. If the Club approves of the finished product, it may be labeled and sold as a Special Club wine.
Champagne is complicated. It’s arguably the most complicated of all wines. Firstly, the Champenois deal with some of the most difficult climatic growing conditions of any region working with Vinifera. In addition to having the same fermentation options that all still wine makers have (stainless steel or barrel, natural yeasts or cultured, etc.) there’s also the additional complexities involved with blending, not only different grapes and vineyards, but different vintages too. When you take into account all of these factors, and then consider that the situation is further compounded by the fact that the wine undergoes a controlled second fermentation, a disgorgement process, and all of the decisions that go along with that (how long is the wine on the lees, dosage or no dosage, sugar or concentrated must, etc.) you begin to realize how difficult a subject it can be to master.
Put simply, Champagne has more variables affecting the final taste than any other wine. There are very few people that can proclaim a mastery of Champagne. The folks that make these wines are amongst those few. Furthermore, it’s within the members of the club’s interests to have very high standards because a single member’s wine represents the entire Club’s judgment and tastes, so they won’t permit anything other than exceptional wines to pass.
Who decides when and how much Dom Perignon or Cristal is made? Surely the wine maker has a say in the process, but one must consider that the decision is also, at least partially, based upon economic conditions. Supply and demand, market studies, focus groups, shareholders, profit and loss statements. This is not the way to make a wine with soul. The Special Club is not influenced by any of these factors. Remember, it’s with the entire Clubs’ interest to be very stringent on what they permit to be called Special Club because it affects them all.
Michael Skurnik Wines has had the pleasure of selling Special Club wines since we first started working with Grower Champagne in 1999. We are proud to represent 5 of the 26 current members.
Pierre Gimonnet, Special Club, Brut, 2000
Gimonnet represents the terroir of the northern half of the Côte des Blancs with this offering. The wine is comprised of strictly Chardonnay from 48% Cramant (Grand Cru), 35% Chouilly (Grand Cru), and 17% Cuis (Premier Cru). The base wine was fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel and put under malolactic fermentation. The wine is finished with a dosage of 5 g/Liter.
Marc Hébrart, Special Club, Brut, 2004
Hébrart is situated in the Premier Cru village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. This village is home to Philipponnat’s Clos des Goisses, and has the highest rating of any Premier Cru village in Champagne (99% ). It seems as if this village should be elevated to Grand Cru status, but such changes are rarely if ever made.
The 2004 Special Club is made from 60% Pinot Noir (Mareuil) and 40% Chardonnay (Mareuil, Chouilly, and Oiry) and it presents a unique perspective on terroir and the boundaries of Champagne. The border of the Côte des Blancs and Vallée de la Marne runs south of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and north of Chouilly and Oiry. The border may separate the regions in name, but not in terroir. Open a bottle of this and try and tell yourself that this fruit doesn’t belong together.
Gaston Chiquet, Special Club, Brut, 2000
The Chiquet family has been working in the region since 1746 and courageously making Champagne under their own label since 1919 (one of the first Récoltant-Manipulants). The 2000 Special Club bottling is comprised of 70% Chardonnay (this comes from the same vineyard that is responsible for the famed Blanc de Blancs d’Aÿ) and 30% Pinot Noir from Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. The wine is finished with a dosage of 8 g/Liter.
Henri Goutorbe, Special Club, Brut, 2002
Goutorbe’s Special Club bottling features fruit picked from the Grand Cru village of Aÿ exclusively. Many Champagne houses are physically based out of Aÿ and list the village on their labels, but almost none represent the terroir as well as this.
The 2002 is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. The wine was fermented in stainless steel and malolactic fermentation was blocked.
A. Margaine, Special Club, Brut, 2002
This is what Grower Champagne is all about. Margaine’s wines all come from the village of Villers-Marmery in the Pinot Noir strong hold of the Montagne de Reims. Pinot is king in this region, but Margaine’s soils are particularly chalky and therefore better suited to Chardonnay. Not only are you getting a specific terroir with this wine (a rare chalky Blanc de Blancs from the Montagne de Reims), but Villers-Marmery grows a specific clone of Chardonnay that is not planted anywhere else in Champagne. The result is a truly unique wine.
This 2002 Blanc de Blancs was assembled from 76% stainless-steel fermented wine and 24% done in old barriques. It was finished with an 8.5 g/Liter dosage and if you get within striking distance it will rock your world.
Tasting Note:
Le Champagne Premier Cru Blanc De Blancs Spécial Club 2004, 100% mono cru Villers-Marme, est de jolie robe dorée, très rond, très fruité, de bouche puissante et persistante, de mousse onctueuse et très fine, aux notes d'amande et de miel.
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