Champagne Pascal Agrapart Grand Cru EXP Blanc de Blancs 2019 Disg. Jul 24

Champagne Pascal Agrapart's EXP, formerly Expérience, is a grand cru Blanc de Blancs made with no added sugar at any stage, produced under special dispensation from the appellation authorities.

Avize is one of the Côte des Blancs grand crus and the base for the Agrapart family, who farm there and in neighbouring villages. In 2002 Pascal Agrapart sought and was granted permission to make a small quantity of wine without chaptalisation, without sugar in the liqueur de tirage that provokes the second fermentation in bottle, and without a final dosage. Using sugar and yeast for the tirage is written into the AOC rules, which is why the exemption was needed. In their place he uses must from the same vineyards, so the finished wine is entirely the product of estate-grown grapes. One consequence is lower alcohol: this sits at around 11.8 per cent, against roughly 12.5 for the rest of the range. Volumes are tiny and the method is genuinely difficult, so very little reaches Australia. The style ages well — the first release, from 2007, still shows strongly from magnum. This bottling was disgorged in July 2024.

Ready now but worth several years in the cellar. Treat it as a white wine at the table, with roast fish, veal or shellfish, at 8–10°C.

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