2012 Pierre Gimonnet et Fils Grands Terroirs de Chardonnay Special Club Champagne 750 ml

In 2012 Didier Gimonnet made some of the most sophisticated expressions of grower Champagne in recent memory, despite being ravaged by late frost, spring hail, and extreme summer heat. For Gimonnet, the challenging conditions left behind the raw ingredients for a sublime vintage that is only now coming into its own.

This tête de cuvée is a prestige buy for all Wine Access members. There isn't much of it, unfortunately. But for a lucky bunch, this bubbly will sing like few do. We have 180 bottles.

The 2012 Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Grands Terroir de Chardonnay Special Club is made from 100% Chardonnay, picked from a pair of storied Grand Cru vineyards, and stretched out with a touch of fruit from a nearby Premiere Cru hillside. Richly textured, the wine barges from the bottle with a bright, youthful acidity and relaxes layer by layer into a state of repose. After a long, minerally finish, this stunner from the Côtes des Blancs left us feeling lifted, and ready for another sip.

All Special Club bottlings are grown, made, and aged in-house, including three years' aging on the lees. Each wine is tasted and analyzed by the Club members at multiple points in the process, and must meet their highest standards.

The wine opens with scents of green apple and lemon blossom, springy and immediate. The bubbles gather into a fine mousse. The pale straw color glints with a deeper golden hue by turns in the glass. The palate, stony and firm, persists with a volume that promises to expand for years to come. 

We had a serious internal battle over this bottle: Not about whether to buy (that was a given), but whether to drink our whole allocation now or tuck these bottles lovingly into the cellar. Ultimately we bought enough to do both—we want enough in our private stash to spend time with this beauty as it ages—eight to ten years. A decade on, we think this wine's song will reach a purity only heard in the sweetest dreams.

With Champagne increasingly interested in expressing a sense of place, the 2012 Terroirs de Chardonnay Special Club hints at being a classic of the era. The grapes in this offering come from plantings in four parcels with vines that are almost entirely between 30 and 100-plus-years-old. The maturity shows. 

The oldest vines, from the Grand Cru lieux-dits of Le Fond du Bateau and Buissons (known for their intensely concentrated fruit and chalky soils) give the wine its unshakable core. Both of those parcels lie along southeasterly slopes, and are well sunned below the quaint cluster of buildings that comprise the village of Cramant. The rest of the Grand Cru fruit, from neighboring Chouilly to the north, is slightly less concentrated but still expressive and round, according to Gimonnet. The 10% Premier Cru grapes come from nearby Cuis, to the west, where the winery is located, adding fresh aerial qualities to the wine that lift it and give it length.

Grower-producer Champagnes are all the rage today, but for decades small houses stood obscured by the shadow of a few big names. As the culture shifted, Gimonnet emerged poised for the moment. Head of the estate Didier Gimonnet comes from a line of growers and producers dating back to the 1750s. His grandfather and house namesake, Pierre Gimonnet, first bottled his own estate-grown Champagne in 1935. Gimonnet was one of the original 12 houses to form the Club Trésors de Champagne, or Special Club, in 1971. 

The times have caught up with these trailblazers, and in a watershed year Gimonnet crafted a wine of precision and concentration that stands shoulder to shoulder with the best.