2012 Champagne Roland Champion Special Club Blanc de Blancs Chouilly Grand Cru 750 ml

Of the roughly 19,000 growers in Champagne, only 5,000 of them make their own wine (which we call grower Champagne). Out of all those growers, a mere 28 are part of the exclusive Club Trésors de Champagne, otherwise known as the Special Club.

Roland Champion is one of those elite chosen few. But that’s far from the only reason we love this tiny, family-owned producer that’s been quietly making bucket-list Champagne for four generations. So beloved in France, Roland Champion only exports 20% of production for the rest of the world to clamor over.

Even without the Special Club distinction, this Grand Cru vintage bottling could outperform grower Champagnes at twice the price, with its fine mousse, chalky minerality, and elegant, creamy citrus character. Luxuriously rich on the mid-palate with hints of ginger, apple tart, and brioche, the way this wine keeps expanding on the finish will have you swooning long after you’ve clinked glasses.

From their Chouilly Grand Cru plot, Roland Champion’s capstone Blanc de Blanc hails from the Chardonnay haven of Côte des Blancs. The Special Club is made with the estate’s oldest vines, reflecting the appellation’s shallow chalk soils, which is why this 2012 bottling dazzles with terroir-driven verve while also providing fireworks in depth and length.

Well before grower Champagne gained traction in the last decade, Special Club started in 1971 with a single purpose: to promote the terroir of Champagne. Unlike the big-name prestige cuvées of Champagne’s Grande Marques like Veuve Clicquot, Krug, and Moët—who combine fruit from all over the region to create a uniform house style year after year—Special Club members must be designated RM (Récoltant Manipulant, or a grower-producer) and use only estate fruit to create the most epic vintage bottlings possible. The character displayed from vintage to vintage is what makes these wines so thrilling for Champagne nuts like us.

These Champagnes may only be made in outstanding years (like 2012, in Roland Champion’s case), which all but guarantees superlative quality. Not only that, but growers can’t use more than 20% of their production—a directive that guarantees a very strict selection—and Special Club wines are capped at a paltry 2,000 bottles per producer.

That’s only if they’re chosen (far from a foregone conclusion). Each year, members submit their very best wine to two blind tasting panels to see if it’s worthy. If so, the Champagne goes into a uniquely shaped bottle, specially designated to distinguish it as Special Club, where it must age for three years. After the aged wines are tasted one last time to ensure quality is still up to snuff, the bottles are released. Then the international scramble for allocation begins.

With only 20% of Roland Champion’s 167 cases of Special Club leaving France, you can do the math on how rare this wine is. But we have a special club of our own here at Wine Access—one that includes the select few importers who work with Special Club Champagne—and that allows us to access this wine, and offer it to you at a truly members-only price.