Champagne Brut Nature
Ameunia

The Champagne Ameunia tells of a change in perspective, that of a Domaine always identified with the craie of Avize and with the purity of the Côte des Blancs, now choosing to look elsewhere as well. Fabrice Agrapart turns his gaze to the Rive Gauche of the Vallée de la Marne, among the Premier Cru of Mareuil-le-Port and Festigny, where clay and marl shape a warmer and more generous landscape than the chalk of home. The name itself recalls Meunier, a grape long considered minor and here reinterpreted as the absolute protagonist, in a reading that brings together the family's artisanal rigour and the vitality of a terroir able to deliver fruit, breadth and character.

This edition, from the 2023 harvest base, leads into vinification and maturation along a twofold path, with 70% of the wine matured in stainless steel and the remaining 30% in oak demi-muids from the Montagne de Reims, while fermentation with indigenous yeasts and a fully completed malolactic fermentation accompany an approach that forgoes fining and filtration. After bottling comes a minimum of twenty-four months of ageing on the lees, ahead of a dégorgement carried out with no final dosage, in a Brut Nature style that protects the tension and the clarity of the fruit.

On tasting, Ameunia opens on a luminous frame of pale gold crossed by a fine and insistent perlage, with an aromatic range moving between wild strawberry, raspberry and ripe apple and hints of pear, bread crust and a discreet spice left by the wood. On the palate the attack is enveloping and creamy, supported by a vibrant acidity that stretches the profile and by a mineral texture that brings contrast and definition. Balance is measured in the interplay between the generosity of the fruit and the verticality of the structure, while the persistence unfolds long and dry, closing on a saline finish of great cleanliness.