The 2006 Brut Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons wraps around the palate and never lets up. Apricot, peaches, wild flowers, butter and spices all flesh out in a dramatic, structured Champagne endowed with tons of pure energy and volume. Stylistically the 2006 brings together the opulence of the 2002 with the minerality and cut of 2004, a great combination in my book. This bottle was disgorged in March 2013. Dosage was 4.7 grams/liter.

(made from a single plot in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger; aged for just over six years on its lees and disgorged in March, 2013): Pale gold. A heady, exotically perfumed bouquet evokes poached pear, musky flowers, vanilla bean (but no oak here), toasty lees and anise. Broad, palate-staining orchard and pit fruit flavors are braced by a zesty orange pith quality, picking up gingery spice and honeysuckle elements with aeration. Finishes sappy, spicy and extremely long, with suave florality and a touch of candied citrus zest.

The 2006 Brut Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons is the stylistic mirror image of the 2007 that preceded it in this tasting, bursting from the glass with a generous and inviting bouquet of confit citrus, Meyer lemon, clear honey, wheat toast and warm biscuits. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, broad and muscular, with an elegantly textural attack, a fleshy core and a long, precise finish. It's a gourmand Les Chétillons that offers interesting possibilities at table.