Champagne Pascal Agrapart Grand Cru Vénus Blanc de Blancs 2017

Disgorged June 2023. Minéral is blended from two adjacent vieilles vignes plots (50-plus years old) on the border between Avize and Cramant, where the vine roots plunge straight into the chalky bedrock. The fruit from Le Champ Bouton in Avize fermented in tank, while the component from Les Bionnes in Cramant was vinified in 600-litre oak casks. The wine spent just over five years on lees and was dosed at 3g/L.

This is typically the saltiest, most mineral wine in the Agrapart range. Like all the Agrapart wines, the quality is remarkably consistent, with the only variation due to vintage. Right now, it is a model of compressed intensity, a ball of citrus and chalky energy with a long, tapering, salty close. Mineral by name, mineral by nature.

Grower champagne of intensity, purity and finesse, Pascal Agrapart produces no more than 6000 cases a year in one of Champagne’s finest regions. The chalky subsoil of the Côte des Blancs, which consists of fossilised belemnites (an extinct cuttlefish), imparts minerality and salinity; while the high limestone content aids photosynthesis whilst reflecting and storing heat, increases acidities and retains moisture.

Pascal works according to natural rhythms and sensibilities without the use of any chemical pesticides or herbicides, always ferments with indigenous yeasts to express terroir, however is uninterested in the labels of organic or biodynamic.