Message in a bottle

The champagne you choose when you know it’s true love.

Is there anything more romantic than sharing a bottle of champagne with the one you love on Valentine’s Day?

Well, that depends on the champagne. Your choice should reflect your relationship. Is it dry? Vintage? Bubbly? Cheap? Magical? Or perhaps something you would rather keep in the cellar?

However, if it is priceless and eternal, consider Agrapart et Fils Cuvée Experience.

Nestled on a comparatively tiny 12-hectare parcel (Veuve Clicquot is grown on 390 hectares) outside the village of Avize in the heart of the Côte de Blancs, this historic domain has been family run since 1894. The current patriarch, Pascal Agrapart, is a man who is as passionate about the earth it’s grown on as he is about the wine … or more so.

For the love of wine

The grounds of the domain are still maintained manually, using many 19th century methods. The recent Venus Cuvée was named after the plow horse that worked the soil.

Agrapart doesn’t use chemicals to treat his land and started the village’s first compost pile. But, this environmentally friendly approach isn’t a marketing ploy, it is simply the way Agrapart believes things should be done.

It also works — Agrapart et Fils is home to some of the oldest vines in the region, many of which are more than 60 years old.

For Agrapart and his family, wine making is a labor of love. He does not cut corners. Quite the contrary. The Cuvée Experience is the only champagne in the world that is 100% wine. Creating a champagne without yeast, sugar, or dosage requires an arduous amount of work. But the result is pure and rare. He only produces this Cuvee when two successive vintages meet Agrapart’s unimaginably high standards.

Agrapart produces a handful of other sought-after Cuvées — each with names that pay homage to how and where they were made. All totaled, Agrapart et Fils makes only 100,000 bottles of champagne each year. By comparison, Moet produces 28 million bottles a year across its brands.

Like any good love story, securing a bottle of champagne from Agrapart et Fils requires work and commitment. But, once you have it, there is nothing more satisfying.

So, if you decide to share a bottle of Agrapart et Fils on Valentine’s Day, make sure it is a lasting love. Because the memory of this champagne will stay with you for a very long time.

Danilo Diazgranados is an investor, collector, and lover of fine wines and a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a fraternity of Burgundy wine enthusiasts.