The 2013 Brut Special Club Millesime is wonderfully amped up and radiant. Honey, pastry, vanillin, apricot and lemon confit open up in a weighty Champagne built on power and intensity. The Special Club offers notable density, even if it has a bit less textural finesse than most of the other wines in this range. Even so, the Special Club is an attractive wine, just not the meaningful step up it should be. I would give the 2013 at least a year or two in bottle to unwind. The blend is 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay. Disgorged: December 6, 2017.

The 2013 Brut Premier Cru Special Club Millesime offers a fresh and intense bouquet of ripe and stewed white fruits with a hint of butter. Pure, fresh, fine, ripe and intense on the palate, this is a very fruity but also pure and tensioned blend of 55% Pinot Noir from A? and Mareuil-sur-A? and 45% Chardonnay from Oiry and Chouilly. It has a fresh and aromatic but somewhat reductive finish. It needs time. Disgorged in August 2017 with a dosage of 6.5 grams per liter.