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Artisan.wine · Club Trésors de Champagne · Three New Arrivals
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Founded 1971 · Only 29 Domaines Worldwide
How 12 tiny growers
built a Champagne society
the connoisseurs hunt.
Special Club Champagne — bottled only when an independent panel of oenologists unanimously approves the vintage. Three new arrivals at Artisan: Paul Bara Brut 2018, Paul Bara Rosé 2019, and Gaston Chiquet 2016.
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Dear Champagne Lover,
The great houses of Champagne — Krug, Dom Pérignon, Cristal, Salon, Belle Époque — built the category, defined the prestige tier, and remain the bottles people reach for when they want something legendary. The houses' top wines, their "têtes de cuvée," sit on the wine lists of every great restaurant on earth for a reason. Today's email isn't about replacing them. It's about a society that both supplied them, and learned from them.
The houses get their fruit from 16,000 growers who farm 84% of the vineyard land in Champagne — including the legendary Grand Cru parcels of Bouzy, Ay, Avize, and Mesnil. Most growers sell their fruit upstream; the houses blend it into prestige cuvées. But 5,000 of those growers have stayed independent and bottle their own Champagne under their own labels — "grower Champagnes," the segment the wine trade has been quietly obsessed with for the last twenty years. Same legendary Grand Cru fruit. A different name on the label.
In 1971, twelve of the most respected of those grower-producers had an idea. What if we created our own prestige tier? A flag we could fly only when our best vines, in our best years, made wine that an independent panel of oenologists unanimously called extraordinary? They called it Club Trésors de Champagne — the Treasure Club. The bottles they release under it are called Special Club Champagne.
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How Special Club Works
The strictest grower society in Champagne.
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Rule one: you must be a grower-producer. Not a négociant, not a brand. You must own the vineyards, farm the fruit yourself, vinify on your own estate, and bottle under your own name. No exceptions.
Rule two: the vintage must be unanimous. Every February, all club members gather to blind-taste the vin clair — the still base wine from the previous harvest. The vote on whether a vintage is even worthy of Special Club status must be unanimous. Many years, the answer is no, and no wine is bottled under the flag.
Rule three: each grower's wine must clear two blind tastings. Once a vintage is approved, each member submits their best cuvée to an independent panel of oenologists. The panel blind-tastes the still wine first. If it passes, the wine becomes Special Club, goes into the second fermentation, and ages on lees in the bodega for a minimum of three years.
Rule four: the final blind tasting decides. After at least three years on the lees, the same independent panel blind-tastes the finished Champagne. Only then is it allowed to wear the Special Club flag. If it doesn't pass, the member must re-label it as something else. There is no "almost good enough."
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Today the Club has expanded from its original 12 founders to 29 grower-producers total. That is the entire universe of Special Club Champagne worldwide.
A Bottle You'll Spot Across the Room
Every Special Club bottle is the same: a distinctive, fat-bottomed shape in deep green glass, with the Club Trésors crest embossed on the collar of the bottle itself — the same shape and the same crest for every grower in the club, from the founders to the newest member. The only thing that changes between bottles is the grower's name on the front label. Once you know the shape, you spot a Special Club from across a wine list.
Why the Price Works the Way It Does
A typical grand Champagne house produces millions of bottles a year. A typical Special Club grower produces a few thousand — sometimes only a few hundred — of their Special Club cuvée in a vintage that's approved at all. The production gap between a tête de cuvée from a major house and a Special Club from a grower is one thousand to one or more.
And yet a Special Club bottle from a Grand Cru grower routinely sells in the $100 to $200 range. The same scoring tier from a tête de cuvée of a great house typically lands $250 to $2,000+ a bottle. It isn't because anyone is overcharging or anyone is underselling — both pricing models work for their respective producers. It's simply that the houses spend on the brand, the cellar reserves, and the global distribution that built their reputations; the growers don't. The juice on each side is exceptional in its own right.
Three new Special Clubs have just landed at Artisan. We're going to keep getting more as they come available — we'll send the next allocation the moment it arrives.
The Three New Arrivals
Two from Bouzy Grand Cru's most decorated family. One from the Vallée de la Marne's quiet master of chalk-driven Chardonnay.
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Bouzy Grand Cru · Pinot-Led Special Club
11 in Stock
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Paul Bara · Bouzy Grand Cru · Club Trésors Member
Brut Grand Cru "Special Club" 2018
70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay · 35-year-old vines · 100% Bouzy Grand Cru
Paul Bara is the most decorated family in Bouzy — the warm, south-facing Grand Cru village that gives Pinot Noir its most full-bodied expression in all of Champagne. The estate is run by Chantale Bara and her son Yvan; their 11 hectares are 100% Grand Cru, with no parcels elsewhere. Old-school production: free-run and first-press juice only, fermentation in small cement tanks, riddled and aged for years in extremely deep, cold cellars beneath the village. Nothing released until ready. The Special Club is the pinnacle of the Bara range.
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94Vinous · Antonio Galloni
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Score is Galloni's recent house reference for the Bara Special Club style.
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Importer's Note · Kermit Lynch
"Each year, the Special Club represents the pinnacle of the Bara process and style. Superlatives seem insufficient. It has it all — refined hazel-nutty, toasty notes, bright acidity, some of the most delicate bubbles ever created, and a finish that lasts and lasts (sometimes longer than the bottle does)."
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94 Points · Vinous · Antonio Galloni (Reference Vintage)
"One of the more powerful, vinous Champagnes in this range. Orchard fruit, white flowers, chalk, mint and white pepper, all backed by considerable volume and substance."
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$134.99
Per bottle · 11 in stock
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The First Special Club Rosé in Club History
12 in Stock
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Paul Bara · Bouzy Grand Cru · 9 Years On Lees
Rosé Brut Grand Cru "Special Club" 2019
70% Pinot Noir (12% Bouzy Rouge), 30% Chardonnay · 7 g/l · 9 years on lees
A piece of Champagne history: starting with the 2004 vintage, Paul Bara created the first rosé ever released under the Special Club banner, adding roughly 8–12% red Bouzy Rouge to the Club blend. As Chantale Bara modestly put it, "Rosé is a specialty of Bouzy. The red wine of Bouzy is very well-known for rosé." The 2019 was aged on its lees for nine years before disgorgement — the kind of age you get from a $400+ Krug, here for a fraction of that.
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93 Points · James Suckling
"Ambitious style for rosé, very toasty and spicy, showing walnuts, redcurrants, lots of violets and raspberries. Fine bubbles are tight and savory. Light- to medium-bodied with elegant texture despite the phenolics."
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Bara's Own Tasting Notes
"The nose, dominated by a pastry note, expresses perfect maturity, with aromas of fruitcake and pound cake and touches of fruit jam (apricots and chutney). A light spicy presence reminiscent of cardamom. Full and generous on the palate, offering a garland of surprising flavors dominated by ripe and candied fruit that linger right up to the finish."
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$159.97
Per bottle · 12 in stock
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Vallée de la Marne · Chardonnay-Led Special Club
Only 4 in Stock
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Gaston Chiquet · Dizy · 90+ Months on Lees
Special Club Premier Cru Brut Millésimé 2016
68% Chardonnay (Dizy & Hautvillers 1er Cru), 32% Pinot Noir (Dizy 1er Cru Griboury)
Nicolas Chiquet farms 23 hectares of all-Premier-and-Grand-Cru vineyards in the Vallée de la Marne — Aÿ, Dizy, Hautvillers, and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. The Gaston Chiquet style is the opposite of oak-driven: no barrels at all, just stainless steel, malolactic, and patient bottle aging. The 2016 Special Club spent over 90 months on the lees before disgorgement — that's 7.5 years, the kind of aging that gives Champagne its toasted-brioche depth. Disgorged October 2024.
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94 Points · Vinous · Antonio Galloni
"The 2016 Special Club is a delight. Lemon oil, chalk, mint, white flowers, slate and dried herbs are all beautifully lifted. This energetic, vibrant Champagne has so much to offer. I find its complex, dynamic personality utterly beguiling. Disgorged: October 2024."
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93+ Points · Jeb Dunnuck
"Pours a bright yellow color and offers notes of cherry blossom, fresh pastry cream, candied lemon, and white grapefruit citrus. Airy and elegant, with a supple mousse and a medium-bodied frame, it's very fresh and young, with a silky, stony texture and a graceful, long finish."
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$104.97
Per bottle · only 4 left
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More on the Way
We're going to keep getting these.
Special Club allocations come in small parcels, usually one or two cases per cuvée, often years after the vintage was approved. As more arrive — whether a Blanc de Blancs from Avize, a Vintage from a Marne Valley grower, or an older library release the club has just disgorged — we'll send a focused email the day they land. If you want to be at the front of that queue, securing one of the three bottles above is the way to flag yourself.
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Three Special Clubs
The grower's prestige tier.
29 producers worldwide.
Paul Bara Brut Special Club $134.99. Paul Bara Rosé Special Club $159.97. Gaston Chiquet Special Club $104.97 (only 4 left).
Bara Brut $134.99 · Bara Rosé $159.97 · Chiquet $104.97 (4 left)
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All my best,
James Tran
Artisan.wine
P.S. The Gaston Chiquet at four bottles won't survive the weekend — 7.5 years on the lees with VM 94, JD 93+, at $104.97 is not a number that lingers. Reply or text us if you'd like to be tagged as a Special Club priority buyer so the next allocation reaches you first. Text 650-880-3553.
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Artisan.wine
artisan.wine
Chat → artisan.wine/?chat · Email → sales@artisan.wine
Text → 650-880-3553 · Phone → 650-917-8080
Please enjoy responsibly · Must be 21+ · Allocation limited; pricing & availability subject to change
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