Sunday Evening Special (Club) from Marc Hebrart
August 9th, 2018
I know, the dog days of August are perhaps an odd time to be promoting a higher-end Champagne, but, then again, it's really hot out here in NYC, and, this very special 'Special Club' bottling from the fantastic grower Marc Hebrart is as refreshing a glass of anything that I've had recently.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term 'Special Club', it (without getting into too much detail) refers to very best bottlings from the Club Trésors de Champagne, a group of 28 producers dedicated to advancing 'Grower Champagne'.
Each February, they get together with their top Vins Clairs from the previous year's harvest to determine if the vintage is of the proper quality to even pursue 'Special Club' bottlings. If so, they then each resubmit their best wines to the tasting panel where the wines are judged blindly.
The finest wines are deemed worthy of the 'Special Club' designation and, when we're lucky enough, they hit the market.
Now I've tasted a good number of these over the years, but so far today's wine, Marc Hebrart's Special Club from the fabulous 2013 vintage, is easily one of my favorites. That's a big statement, but those of you who love that ineffable marriage of precision and elegance will probably feel the same way.
And that's what this wine (and the vintage) is all about - subtly kaleidoscopic aromatics, incredible, tense energy and a chiseled, precise finish that hides an unassumingly intense structure and minerality...all while weightlessly across the palate.
Even just thinking about the glass I had recently makes me wonder if a wine has ever been simultaneously this serious and refreshing at the same time.
And this is the young version...really it's a wine you'll want to forget about for the next 5 years at least, to allow the textural elements and nuance that are locked inside to emerge.
This wine is blessed with everything you could ask for in a young Champagne, especially if you're into those dazzling levels of rigor that only the most 'Special' wines can offer.
This is a very limited item, so, for the few of you out there who are actually tuning in this time of year, you are the lucky ones!
Champagne Marc Hebrart Brut 1er Cru Special Club 2013
Matt Franco
MCF Rare Wine, Ltd
249 West 13th Street NYC 10014
212.255.8870
WARNING: DRINKING DISTILLED SPIRITS, BEER, COOLERS, WINE AND OTHER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES MAY INCREASE CANCER RISK, AND, DURING PREGNANCY, CAN CAUSE BIRTH DEFECTS.