Cramant tends to be the most dazzling of Didier Gimonnet's Special Club bottlings, which highlight individual villages of Chardonnay in the northern Côte des Blancs. The 2017, while far from displaying the problems encountered elsewhere in Champagne during this torrid vintage, nevertheless fails quite to hit the heights this wine can reach, trading on a forward, developing apricot and orange citrus fruitiness, straight and balanced but not quite showing the mineral presence, fine citrus or linear, age-worthy structure that often emerges in this cuvée. Fine as an earlier-drinking vintage.

The new 2017 Special Club Cramant Grand Cru derives from several lieux-dits within the village and incorporates fruit from vines planted between 1911 and 1982. Disgorged in October 2023 with four grams per liter dosage, it opens from the glass to reveal aromas of white flowers, brioche, orange zest and pear. Slightly broader and less tight-knit than the 2016 rendition, it’s textural yet vibrant and laden with bright acidity and chalky extract. This is a wine that Gimonnet describes as the “nec plus ultra” of his single-village cuvées, and it proves the point, even if it appears to be more immediate than its predecessor.- KK