The Special Club Oger 2017 from Pierre Gimonnet is a champagne sourced from the single village of Oger, a grand cru classified village at the southern end of the Côte des Blancs. This origin gives it a natural power and a more pronounced minerality.
This is a cuvée built around white orchard fruit and a touch of floral character, lifted by a smoky nuance that sets it apart from our usual blends. Its texture stays beautifully balanced, carried through by a saline tension on the finish.
This is a bottle you can pour from the very first glass, alongside Comté gougères, before bringing it to the table with a sole meunière or a lemon meringue tart.
The Terroir
The Special Club Oger 2017 is a Blanc de Blancs, meaning it is made entirely from Chardonnay.
The Chardonnay comes from the terroir of Oger, a Grand Cru village on the Côte des Blancs, where Pierre Gimonnet tends its vines.
This Grand Cru classification marks out one of the most sought-after terroirs on the whole Côte des Blancs, an area growers regard as the historic heartland of Chardonnay in Champagne. It's here that the variety finds what are considered its most favourable conditions, delivering the fullest expression sought for wines destined for long ageing.
On this terroir, Chardonnay gives the wine a lively tension on the palate and a saline minerality that carries through the finish.
Winemaking
Didier Gimonnet, the winemaker at the helm of the estate, farms this 2017 Chardonnay with the lightest possible touch on the environment: soils are respected, herbicide use kept to an absolute minimum, and fertilisation is almost non-existent, encouraging roots to dig deep into the chalk. This restrained rather than forced approach to viticulture reveals the true character of the terroir, favouring minerality over fruit. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks, a neutral vessel that lets the terroir speak without adding any oaky notes. Malolactic fermentation was carried through in full, softening the acidity and bringing a velvety roundness to the palate. The Extra Brut dosage then fine-tunes the balance, without ever masking the tension of the fruit. The resulting minerality comes through delicately, held together by chalky notes that extend the wine's freshness.
The 2017 Vintage
In 2017, on the Côte des Blancs, summer alternated between spells of rain and long stretches of dry weather, forcing growers to keep a very close eye on how the grapes were developing. While other parts of Champagne had to contend with rot, the Chardonnay in Oger was able to hold out for full ripeness before harvest began, which was approached here with real ambition. Picking started in mid-September in dry, cool conditions, yielding grapes that retained good acidity despite tighter yields brought about by careful selection. This natural freshness in the Chardonnay gives the cuvée its saline tension and precision, the signature this vintage has left on the Special Club Oger.
