André Beaufort

In 1969 Jacques Beaufort, a grower in the Grand Cru village of Ambonnay, fell ill from the chemicals he was spraying on his vines. By 1971 he had thrown them all out, decades before anyone in Champagne thought that was a reasonable thing to do. He treated the vineyard with essential oils from 1974 and homeopathy from 1980, weeded by hand, fed the soil with vegetable compost, and for years refused to pay anyone for a certificate that said he was organic; the estate only registered for conversion in 1994 and had its first certified vintage in 1997.

The house has two homes. Ambonnay on the Montagne de Reims is where it started, and Polisy in the Côte des Bar is where most of the vines now are. How many hectares depends on who is counting, somewhere between 6.5 and 7.8 in total, with a quarter or less at Ambonnay and the rest at Polisy; Pinot Noir is more than three quarters of it and Chardonnay the rest. The vines are held in a family company, which is why a family of growers bottles under a négociant-manipulant number. Production is around 25,000 bottles a year. Jacques's sons Constant and Réol run the estate now; another son, Amaury, set up on his own in 2018 with a one-hectare parcel at Polisy that his father had planted.

The cellar is as stubborn as the vineyard, and there is one method for every cuvée: pressing with the cuvée kept apart from the tailles, indigenous yeasts in casks or tanks, malolactic left to happen whenever spring decides, a tirage with unrefined cane sugar or concentrated grape sugar, bottles kept on their lees until someone buys them, disgorgement by hand à la volée, and an expedition liqueur of concentrated grape sugar. The house is known for releasing old vintages in small late-disgorged batches, each with its disgorgement date on the label, so the same year can turn up decades apart and taste like two different wines.