Size & Type
Other
$254
Disgorged June 2023. Complantée comes from a single parcel in Avize that Agrapart co-planted (complantée) with six varieties: Pinot Noir, Meunier, Chardonnay and the heirloom Champagne varieties of Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Blanc. Chardonnay accounts for one-quarter of the blend, with the remainder split equally between the other five varieties. The vines are all in the Fosse vineyard, the same site that gives us the great Vénus cuvée (the name of the specific vineyard parcel where these vines are situated is La Fosse à Bull). With this wine, Pascal Agrapart is delving into the past to try to understand what the ancient varieties and the traditional practice of co-plantation can bring to the table.
This release is based on the outstanding 2020 harvest, with 20% reserve wine from 2019. The fruit was hand-harvested together, co-fermented and barrel-aged before being put to bottle without filtration. The wine rested for just over two years on its lees and was dosed with less than 5 g/L.
The wine’s atypical savouriness and notes of nettle, crushed herbs and subtle spice are far from common in a Champagne, yet it is delicious. The vibrant clarity and driving mineral freshness crackle across the palate and speak loudly of Avize. We’ll leave the final words to Peter Liem: “While there are a number of champagnes being made from these varieties today, Agrapart’s is surely one of the finest.”
In stock
Pascal Agrapart is a grower at the top of his game. In France, he is now routinely compared to his neighbour Anselme Selosse, even though the style of wine produced by these two men is markedly different. If you were looking for a Burgundian analogy, you could think of Selosse as Lafon to Agrapart’s Coche. Both in the same village, both exceptional quality, yet both growing wines that are very different. In short, Agrapart picks earlier, uses larger, older wood and bottles earlier, resulting in wines that are less influenced by oxygen. Stylistic differences aside, the quality is on a very similar level which is why La Revue du vin de France is now giving both growers the same three star rating (their highest classification, handed out to only seven Champagne producers in total). Avize has always been a special village, and today, thanks to Agrapart and Selosse, it is at the heart of the great grower movement in Champagne.
Vineyards are ploughed (some by horsepower), no chemical pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides are ever used and the fruit is, of course, harvested manually.
I don’t know who coined the term “Grower Champagne”, when you see it, make sure you take a second look before you move on. Champagne producers are split into three groups:
Agrapart sits comfortably in the Grower group. Doing all the little 1 percenters in the vineyard and winery that make the difference between a drink and a pleasure fest!
Visit the vineyards and you’ll see horse-drawn ploughs and during the pruning and harvesting seasons the same faces year after year. That kind of continuity just makes for deep knowledge and empathy for the vineyards that = great wine.
Production is tiny, with no more than 6000 cases produced in any given year, and vine age is among the oldest in the Côte des Blancs (between 35 and 60+ years old with around 70% of the vines at 40+ years. Yields are kept very low.
The average potential alcohol at harvest is very high for the region, normally around 11 degrees, and Agrapart almost never has to chaptalise.
The grapes are pressed with a traditional Coquard vertical press, fermentation is carried out with natural yeasts, which Agrapart feels is crucial to the expression of terroir. Malolactic fermentation is completed for all the wines, and aging is in old, 600-litre demi-muids and foudré, large format barrels reaching into the 1000’s of litres each.
Lees stirring, re-suspending yeast from fermentation that has settled to the bottom of the barrel to add extra creaminess and complexity.
Use of carefully crafted reserve wines in the blends. Reserve wines are older wines that are a blend of several different years, often stored in foudré. Their use imparts complexity and generosity that you wouldn’t see in the wine until it had been aged for much longer in bottle were it not for their use.
All of these things only have a positive impact when the fruit is of quality, has the depth to handle oxygen contact and be improved by it rather than fall apart.
Dosage, which is done with a traditional liqueur d’expédition of cane sugar, varies from wine to wine, although it is usually around 3/4 g/L. Cuvée Venus is non-dosé.
Combined the effort in the vineyard and winery result in layered, complex, yummy wine, with bags of personality.
Based in Avize, Agrapart works an astonishing 70 micro-plots in the Côte des Blancs, mostly in Avize yet with plots in Cramant, Oiry and Oger as well. These villages are home to many of the best Chardonnay growing sites in Champagne.
Click to enlarge🔎
Click on a map to enlarge🔎
PREVIOUS DISGORGEMENT OF THE SAME WINE “Based on the 2019 vintage and disgorged in April 2022, Agrapart's NV Brut 7 Crus wafts from the glass with scents of crisp green apple, freshly baked bread, white flowers and buttery pastry. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, it's an ample, incisive wine, with racy acids and a saline finish. When the range begins like this, you know you're in the presence of one of Champagne's greatest producers.”
Where in the world does the magic happen?
Champagne Agrapart et Fils, Avenue Jean Jaurès, Avize, France
You must be logged in to post a comment.