The Justice League of Champagne: The wines of Club Tresors

In 1971 the club was founded by a dozen winemakers from old families of Champagne. The purpose was to promote and show the quality of estate bottled champagne from the different villages within the Champagne region. I prefer to think of them as a team of Champagne producers with supernatural powers who right injustices throughout the world and drink great grower champagne throughout the process. A little research has cleared things up for me.

Champagne is typically a blended wine with pinot noir, pinot munier and chardonnay making up the blend. There are three types of Champagne producers. The most common are the Négociant-Manipulants (NM) typically large champagne houses that source most of the grapes used in their Champagne from the thousands of growers in the region. The next are the Récoltant-Manipulants (RM). These are small usually family run wineries which produce champagne only from their vineyard holdings. There are also the Co-Opératives-manipulants (CM) in which landowners sell their grapes to the local Co-Op which makes and sells the Champagne.

All the members of the Special Club fall under the RM category. “Grower Champagne” as it is called is an expression of the village it comes from as well as the grapes used in the cuvée. The labels of the Champagnes feature the name of the village front and center because these vignerons are trying to showcase the specific terroir of that village. Champagne has some great village names and among my favorites are Bouzy, AΫ (pronounced like the Cajun call for a good time Ay-eeeee!) Dizy, and Oger (pronounced oh-jay.)

All the members of the Special Club are great producers, but what makes their special club releases more special is the series of tastings that they must go through in order to bear the club’s seal. When a clubman decides that the juice from a vintage is good enough to be a special club it must first pass a tasting by the club and get approval. It is then tasted at three years old and again before release. A special club release from one of these producers is considered to be their top cuvée (the best wine that they produce) yet compared to wines like Dom Perignon, Cristal and other prestige cuvees, these wines are relative bargains. I have three Special Clubs on the list at Herbsaint: One from Gimonnet, one from Marc Hebrart and one from Roland Champion. I have a fourth on the way and my goal is to have the deepest selection of Special Clubs in the South.

The club now has twenty five members (I’ve managed to taste special clubs from about seven) and their website is www.clubtresorsdechampagne.com. There are pictures and short interviews with all of the families. These are farmers, not crime fighters. Their special powers come from the soil not a run in with a radioactive spider. Unlike the imaginary group I created in my head, the Special club is real and their champagnes are the real deal. Do yourself a favor and try one.

Back Label out.