Agrapart Champagne Grand Cru Expérience Brut Nature 2014

Pascal Agrapart is an undisputed champagne genius. He proves this once again with his completely unique Expérience. With the launch of this champagne, Pascal has achieved something that has never been seen before in Champagne. He has managed to produce a champagne without any additives other than grapes.

Logical as that may sound, this is in fact a huge tour de force. It is not without reason that Pascal experimented for years before bringing this wine to the market for the first time. Cultivated yeast is usually used to initiate the initial fermentation. The still wine is then always bottled with the addition of the so-called liqueur de tirage: a mixture of yeast and sugar that causes the second fermentation in the bottle to start, so that the wine acquires its mousse (prize de mousse). Usually, after the dégorgement (the process by which the precipitated yeasts are removed from the bottle), sugar is again added to the champagne (called dosage), which determines how dry or sweet the final champagne becomes.

Not so in the case of the Expérience. Pascal wanted to create the most natural champagne possible. A champagne without the addition of yeasts and sugars. To achieve this, Pascal allowed the first fermentation to proceed spontaneously, with the help of the yeasts present on the grape. To start the second fermentation, he then bottled the still wine with the addition of grape must from the following harvest year, instead of liqueur de tirage. Finally, the champagne is marketed without dosage, so as brut nature.

Because of this special, minimalist production method, you can almost see the Expérience as a cross between champagne and still white wine. This is champagne in its purest, cleanest and delicate form. We're not quick to say it, but in this case less is definitely more. Do you dare to experiment?