Fabrice Agrapart

From the 1980s the family house in Avize was run by two brothers, Fabrice and Pascal Agrapart, the fourth generation since Arthur Agrapart founded Agrapart et Fils in 1894. In 2020 Fabrice set out on a path of his own. With two partners, Emmanuel Turpin and Johanna Bergsborn Bertilsson, he founded Agrapart Avize: the same village, the same chalk of the Côte des Blancs, a new plan. Pascal carries on with his share under the name Pascal Agrapart.

Champagne Club reports that the old estate was divided through a succession. Pascal kept the cuvée names Avizoise and Vénus, while Fabrice kept the company name. His side holds about 5.5 hectares: 4.3 from the family vineyards and 1.2 bought separately in Avize and Oger, nearly all Grand Cru, with a little Premier Cru in Bergères-lès-Vertus. A collaboration with Jardin gives access to another 5.5 hectares in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Festigny and Mareuil-le-Port. Richard Juhlin's Champagne Club places Fabrice's wines closer to the spirit of Jacques Selosse than to the classical purity of his brother's.

In the vineyards Fabrice reaches for older tools. The house's own profile on Vivino calls him one of the first growers in Champagne to bring horses back in place of tractors. Two parcels kept for the future Aroma cuvée, half a hectare in Oiry planted in 1963 from Pierre Agrapart's massal selection and 11 ares in Cramant planted in 1990, are worked only by hand and horse so the soil is never packed down. The house describes its farming as biodynamic and says it is converting fully to organic, with certification planned for 2027. Work follows the moon, a habit Fabrice took from his grandparents.

The cellar keeps things plain: gravity pressing, indigenous yeasts, no fining or filtration, and every champagne Brut Nature. Atoma blends seven Côte des Blancs crus with a fifth drawn from a perpetual Grand Cru reserve begun in 2020, so each bottling carries an atom of every vintage since. Anthocya is neither a saignée nor a blended rosé: its colour comes only from the anthocyanins of a little Pinot Noir, by a method Fabrice devised. A pure Meunier, a Grand Cru made only from the taille and two still Coteaux Champenois, among them Alba from Les Avats, fill out the range.

The next chapter is being built on Avenue Jean Jaurès in Avize. The historic Auge Colin building is becoming one site that takes the wine from press to shipping, with a hotel, a restaurant and a members' club shaped by the artist Carsten Höller. The house's website gives the end of 2026 for the first phase, while its Vivino profile names 2027 for the opening. A fifth generation is already lined up: Fabrice's daughter Prunelle plans to join him as his successor.