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Disgorged June 2025. (Formerly known as Expérience). The price here reflects the demand for a cuvée that is utterly unique in the Champagne world, and its rarity (there is next to none to go around). We should also not forget that this is a wine style that is extremely difficult to make.
First, some background for those new to this wine. In 2002, Agrapart sought and (remarkably) received permission from the local authorities to begin experimenting with a small quantity of wine that he wanted to produce without adding any sugar: no chaptalisation and no additions for the secondary fermentation’s liqueur de tirage (the tricky part), nor for the final dosage (liqueur d’expédition). Not using sugar and yeast for the liqueur de tirage (to prompt the second fermentation in the bottle) is usually against the AOC laws, which is why Agrapart needed permission. So how does Agrapart achieve the bottle fermentation? Instead of sugar, he uses must (grape juice) from the same vineyards that produce the wine, allowing him to create a Champagne that is made from 100% Estate-grown grapes. It is also lower in alcohol because the lower natural sugars prevent the 1.5 degree alcohol jump that typically occurs with standard secondary fermentation. So, this wine rests at around 11.5% - 11.8% alcohol compared with 12.5% for the rest of the range. It’s also a wine that ages remarkably well; we recently tasted the first vintage, 2007, from magnum at the Estate. It was in wonderful shape!
The current release is an equal-parts blend from vineyards that contributed to the Avizoise and Minéral cuvées (Les Robarts in Avize and Les Bionnes in Cramant), ‘dosed’ with around 20% of the juice of 2021 from these same vineyards. It is this juice that drives the secondary fermentation in bottle. Again, no sugar or yeast additions were used for fermentation, and the wine was neither fined nor filtered. Regardless of the methodology, this is simply a magnificent, one-of-a-kind Blanc de Blancs: complex, floral and crystalline—without the traditional autolytic notes of a standard tirage, but instead, a purity and delicacy that is second to none. The finish is seriously long as well, streaked with chalk, sap and candied lemon notes.