Marc HebrartMareuil-sur-Ay, Grande Vallée

Producer profile
PL "one of the finest estates in the Grande Vallée", run by the same man since 1997: Jean-Paul Hebrart, Marc's son. 15 hectares spread over 10 villages. Sustainable farming practices and separate parcel vinification. Cuvée de Réserve is "unusually complex and refined for a nonvintage brut, but the real value is Sélection, a premium nonvintage cuvee made exclusively from old-vine parcels of pinot noir in Mareuil-sur-Ay and chardonnay from Chouilly and Oiry." Blanc de Blancs is "expressive" with "broad, creamy richness and earthy minerality" from (atypically) Mareuil-sur-Ay's chardonnay. The "excellent" Rosé is "well-known in the region": "lithe and fragrant, it balances exuberant fruit with brisk, saline chalkiness." Rive Gauche Rive Droite was created in 2004 using a special selection of old vines. "Fermented in barrel with indigenous yeasts, it's a thrilling champagne, capable of tremendous complexity and finesse." Notably, the Special Club is made from a similar selection but vinified in a steel tank, so a comparison is apt: "the Special Club is typically more fragrant and graceful where the Rive Gauche Rive Droite is brooding and mysterious, needing more time to open." Noces de Craie is the most recent cuvee, exhibiting "nuanced complexity and an elegantly concentrated depth of fruit." One of today's "superstars" of the Club Trésors de Champagne and member of Les Artisans du Champagne. TyS 7/10 "the most famous grower in the village" of Mareuil-sur-Ay. Concentrated grape must is used for dosage instead of sugar. No sulphur is added at disgorgement. A family connection to Diebolt-Vallois. 95 points for Rive Gauche Rive Droite and a very nice writeup: "fermented entirely in small, old barrels", this is a "spicy and characterful cuvée", with "fig depth", "white peach definition", and "spicy, toasty, coffee bean complexity of well-handled old barrel fermentation". ToS 87 "the star" of the range, Hebrart Special Club is "consistently among the finest" prestige cuvées. TT 2019 Champagne catalog page 206 (see also 2017 and 2013). This producer does not have a website.

Tasting notes

Rive Gauche Rive Droite 2010. Disgorged June 22 2017. Extra Brut. Greenish-golden color. Profusely mousseaux with a fountain of bubbles. Presents sweet at first. Autolytic, complex, layered. Good balance between sweet, tart, and bitter. Fleeting associations with a railway track's smell of tar and an alpine amaro's dark herbaceousness. TT 2017 Champagne catalog page 18 (see also 2019). Purchased at Molly's Spirits in summer 2020 for $104. ⭐⭐

Special Club Millésime 2012. Disgorged April 20 2017. Beautiful Special Club bottle with a traditionally styled label in green and golden hues. Uncorked with a deep throaty pop. Clear neutral yellow color like acacia honey. Ebullient and pert effervescence. Fragrant but not overtly toasty or fruit-forward. There is a lovely bread-and-honey afterglow in the emptied glass. Aromatic associations with mead and high-toned sweetness of crystallized fudge. There is a momentary stony mineral impression. This champagne emanates a kind of floral freshness and nectarous mellowness of sun-warmed grapes. It tastes ample and balanced with appetizing bitterness from ageing on the lees. TT 2017 Champagne catalog page 17 (see also 2019 and 2018). Purchased at Marty's in autumn 2020 for jaw-dropping $75. ⭐⭐⭐

Rosé. Disgorged January 17 2019. Very pretty bottle. Toasty, peachy, with a fig nuance. Fairly sweet and faintly reminiscent of a pickled gherkin's salty sweetness. Notes of apple raisin compote and rye bread. TT 2019 Champagne catalog page 207 (see also 2018 and 2017). Purchased at Marty's in autumn 2020 for $67. ⭐

Sélection. Disgorged August 30 2016. Chalky and fresh but developed. Fragrant, broad, stimulating, and somehow "chewy". TT 2017 Champagne catalog page 17 (see also 2019 and 2018). Purchased at Marty's in autumn 2020 for $43. ⭐⭐

Special Club 2014. Disgorged December 18 2018. There's a touch of sourness on the cork, very slight but not entirely neutral. Vivid and bright flavor right away. This wine packs a uniquely saturated combination of acidity, ripeness, and development. It feels high-dynamic-range in its expression, delivering, as if by the very definition, an expanded range of luminosity. Associations with bread, grain, even molasses. Goes atmospheric very quickly, humidly fragrant, and full of salty sensual volupté. TT 2019 Champagne catalog page 208. Purchased at Hazel's in autumn 2020 for $70(!) ⭐⭐⭐

Noces de Craie 2015. Disgorged January 17 2019. Exceptionally fat cork. The bottle foams at the mouth, so to speak, and the foam tastes like fresh pear (but like apple to another taster). First impression from Zalto White Wine glass is sweet and bacony. Remarkably sweet for Extra Brut, in fact. From Zalto Burgundy, the wine is perfumed but also a touch alcoholic, sort of like eau de parfum is more alcoholic compared to a pure perfume extract. After a while comes the buckwheat and a generally delightful picnic atmosphere of the overgrown summer meadow on Peters Hill. I can't say I perceive any unusually prominent chalk; I suppose, the name should not be taken literally. In the end, it is a tad too sweet for my taste. A tartine au miel – so much better in French! Terry loves it though, see his 2019 Champagne catalog page 208. Purchased at Molly's in autumn 2020 for $110. ⭐

Special Club 2013. Disgorged October 26 2017. Same acidic signature on the cork but less than 2014. Standing ribbons of bubbles in Zalto Burgundy like a garden of eels. See, it's possible to have pretty bubbles in a large-bowl glass. This champagne is vinous, with great balance and vibrancy, appealing at the start and growing ever more delicious with time. Finally, I can nail down a perfume association: it's faint but it's Chanel Allure. There's a little bit of cucumber there too. Surprisingly confident and tasty with loud food, it did just fine with Myers+Chang takeout. A lovely impression of tangerines on day two. TT 2018 Champagne catalog page 17. Purchased at Molly's in autumn 2020 for $75. I heart these Clubs! ⭐⭐⭐

Mes Favorites 2015. Disgorged on August 28 2019. Beautiful antique bottle styling. Sensation of sweetness on the nose and maltiness at the back of the palate. Saltiness, fudge, honey cake, nearly syrupy aromatics but not tremendously sweet taste-wise. In any case, it is not as sweet as Noces de Craie. Distant association with Lallement. This is very good from the beginning but even tastier on day two: slightly more acidic (a repeated and confirmed impression) and slightly less malty, hence more balanced, fragrant, warmly bitter, still profusely honeyed on the nose, with loaves of lovely breadiness. I'd prefer a zing more of acidity as it still tastes quite ripe, albeit not at all heavy or viscous. A curious fleeting association appears once from Jancis and is affirmed in Zalto Burgundy: a phantasm of a deserted Moscow subway station, with its endlessly receding escalators, the tombal echo of its polished granite, and the tar and metal smell of its track. An amusing mental intrusion rather than an association, really, as the wine has nothing Soviet or sepulchral about it! But see my notes for Rive Gauche Rive Droite above. 2014 base description in TT 2019 Champagne catalog on page 207. Purchased (happily several bottles) at Craft & Cru in spring 2021 for $73. ⭐⭐⭐