Augustin Les Vertus N/V
This Champagne, made from Chardonnay alone, gave off a ketchup aroma.
Region: Champagne · Type: Sparkling · Vintage: NV · Producer: Augustin & Fils · Grape: Chardonnay
Tasted 2025-11-01
In the glass
There were vegetal aromas and a note of ketchup. It does have the crispness that belongs to a Champagne made only from Chardonnay. But the ketchup note and the oxidative nuance were so distinctive that it was hard to recognise it as a Chardonnay-only Champagne.
Producer
Champagne Augustin is carried on by Emmanuelle and Marc Augustin, who join two families that have grown grapes for four generations on the father's side and five generations on the mother's side. The great-grandmother of Marc Augustin, Andrée Lefèvre, took up making Champagne herself in the early 20th century, the practice known as manipulation, making Champagne from one's own grapes rather than selling them. It was unusual for a woman at the time.
Site
The wine comes from Vertus in the Côte des Blancs, in Champagne, from Monts Ferrés.
Vinification
Across the domaine, the wines are made in enamel tanks, in oak barrels and wooden vessels made from Montagne de Reims wood, and in terracotta amphorae, and they are not filtered. The domaine does not chaptalise, does not inoculate with cultured yeasts, does not use cold stabilisation and does not inoculate for malolactic fermentation, and it uses very little sulphur.