Grower Champagne Club MARCH 2021

CHARDONNAY: AVIZE TO AMBONNAY, CARBONATE TO CLAY

GROWER CHAMPAGNE NO. 1 R.H. Coutier Blanc de blancs Brut Chardonnay Ambonnay, Champagne, France NV

RE-ORDER: $49

GROWER: The Coutier story spans an incredible 400 years in the Montagne de ​ Reims, starting way back in 1619 in the Grand Cru village of Ambonnay. This area is certainly regarded as Pinot country, with south-facing slopes and a slightly warmer microclimate suitable to ripen the finicky Pinot it has long been a red-zone. But in 1948 Henri Coutier was the first vigneron in Ambonnay to plant Chardonnay in the village, an iconoclastic move at the time that is now roundly respected thanks to the bombastic wines the family has turned out in the decades since.

Nowadays, fifth generation winemaker Antoine Coutier leads the 22 acre estate, about one-third of which is Chardonnay. The vines are spread over 40 different plots, each one representing the intriguing subtle differences in the mix of clay and limestone soils. The family farms without ever using herbicides and using ​ only organic fertilizers. The Coutier house style is based in the richness of Ambonnay’s ripe fruit but also aims to preserve all the terroir minerality and freshness of their Grand Cru sites. The wines are mostly fermented and aged in stainless steel with little barrel aging ever, and only about two-thirds go through malolactic fermentation in order to balance opulence with verve in their blends.

TASTING NOTES: This has so very much succulent juicy decadence, and yet that ​ refined pointedness that makes champagne the very pinnacle of unparalleled hedonistic delight. It opens with the white talcy minerality of Ambonnay’s terroir, and even that little extra ripeness of the site shines through in the orchard fruits on the palate- perfectly creamy bosc pears and ripe white peaches. There’s a touch of caraway seed and rye bread, and a perfumed honeysuckle lightness that is just as silky and sumptuous as a bubble bath, which may actually be this wine’s perfect pairing.

FINE DETAILS: Based on 2016 with 40% reserve wines. Dosage 6.5 grams per liter. ​ Disgorged February 2020.

GROWER CHAMPAGNE NO. 2 Agrapart et Fils ‘Terroirs’ Blanc de blancs Extra Brut Chardonnay Avize, Champagne, France NV

RE-ORDER: $76

GROWER: Agrapart et Fils is absolutely one of the top names uttered in any ​ ​ ​ conversation about champagne’s best grower-producers, and they’ve been at it for 127 years and counting. Agrapart (and sons) was established in 1894 in Avize, in the belly of the Côte de Blancs, and the estate has bottled its own wine since the very beginning, making it one of the true OG GPs. Now in the hands of the fourth generation vigneron Pascal Agrapart and his oldest son Amboise (le fils), the estate ranges over 23 acres of predominantly Grand Cru Chardonnay, mostly in the villages of Avize, Oger, Cramant and Oiry. Their organic and meticulously farmed vines also rank among the oldest in the Côte de Blancs, with many sites at least seventy years old.

The family knows Avize soils to the core, Pascal describes a consistent subsoil of calcium carbonate limestone that is covered with varying amounts of clay, with more clay at the top of the hills and gradually less toward the bottom. He finds that higher clay content translates to bigger, broader wines and less clay leads to linear minerality. His blend of these grand cru sites he calls "terroirs," which he ​ compiles from the finest têtes de cuvées. The wines are fermented with natural ​ yeast and full malolactic and aged in puncheons and stainless steel tanks. All bottles are hand-riddled and aged for a minimum 36-48 months on lees.

TASTING NOTES: This wine buzzes with Avize energy and solidly makes the point ​ for Grand Cru in champagne; it shows all the electricity of the limestone on clay interplay that Agrapart teases into this “terroirs” bottling. It’s deeply infused with crunchy, stony minerality and a zippy citrus zest like kaffir lime leaf and fresh lemongrass. It keeps unfolding in the glass with fluffy white pomelo pith, fresh wet clay and sourdough toast points... that are extra pointy. Agrapart leaves no unbelievers behind.

FINE DETAILS: A 50/50 blend of 2016 and 2015, with about 25% of the wine done in ​ neutral oak. Dosage is 5 grams per liter. Disgorged April 2020.