2007 Agrapart Blanc de Blancs Mineral Extra Brut

The 2007 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Mineral comes across as quite soft and open in this vintage, which makes it an excellent choice for drinking over the next few years. Dried pears, white flowers, spices and nuance all flesh out in a ripe, inviting Champagne. Hints of almond, orange peel and white flowers appear on the finish. The 2007 is just a bit forward for this wine, so I would drink it sooner rather than later. The Mineral emerges from parcels in Les Champbutons (Avize) and Les Bionnes (Cramant). Dosage was 4 grams per liter. This bottle was disgorged on July 2013.

As usual for this bottling, originating with two neighboring 40-year-old parcels in Avize near the communal line with Cramant, and vinified roughly half-each in tank and cask, Agrapart’s 2007 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Mineral is only coming onto the market this fall in France, and the bottle I tasted in June – with a written-over 2006 label – had been disgorged in January of this year solely for purposes of press tastings. Pleasantly piquant aromatic suggestions of sourdough yeasts, toasted buckwheat and lemon rind have their persistently stimulating counterpart on a strikingly delicate and nuanced palate, with stone, chalk, salt and smoke accenting fresh apple and winter pear. With time, a more caressing textural side emerged. The sense of salivary gland stimulation in the lingering finish is extremely active, and combined with tactile impingements of chalk, radish, lemon rind and active yeasts (figuratively speaking, of course). This is certainly less obviously multi-faceted and energetic than the corresponding “Terroirs” bottling, but utterly intriguing, impressively refined, and likely to merit at least a half dozen years of attention. Pascal and Fabrice Agrapart farm 24 acres morsellated into more than 60 parcels the length of the Cote des Blancs, overwhelmingly planted with selections massales (principally of the family’s own, generations-long devising) rather than clones. Viticulture is clearly a meticulous concern, and while this estate doesn’t subscribe to any labels, it has a lot in common – including absence of herbicides or pesticides; generally minimalist cellar protocol; manual- and in some instances horse-plowing – with soil-conscious growers of officially organic or biodynamic persuasion. “It’s in warm, dry vintages with low acidity that you most see the effect of working the soil and making the roots go deep,” opines Pascal Agrapart, adding “I recently had a wonderful experience with a 1976 that was still full of vivacity.” Vinification is majority in tank for the two least expensive bottlings, but otherwise in old demi-muids in which primary fermentation is spontaneous and generally leisurely, with malo-lactic conversion initiated via a vinous starter to insure steady completion. Agrapart’s 2012 vins clairs and 2011 reserves, incidentally – wine isn’t assembled and bottled here until the end of the summer – were delightful and fascinating when tasted from barrel this June. There was noteworthy clarity, vibrancy and complexity to every wine I tasted here in June and thereafter, so it would have broken my heart not to be able to report on the non-vintage wines, but to do so, I must confess I’m walking close to the line of the conventions I established for my reports, because neither disgorgement dates nor lots are actually indicated on the label or bottle here, but rather on the top of the cork, with the months assigned consecutive capital letters, followed by the last two digits of the year in which the wine was disgorged. This means you’ll either need to buy and remove the cage from the first bottle or get some cooperation from your merchant if you want to know when the wine was disgorged (and as at other addresses, this won’t always be a reliable indicator as to the base wines in question, because Agraparts disgorge their “7 Crus” and “Terroirs” bottlings monthly). Importers include Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 559-1040; Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404; and Vanguard Wines LLC, Columbus, OH; tel. (614) 291-3493