Champagne Marguet Shaman Grand Cru Extra Brut

If it weren’t for an unfortunately timed decision by Marguet founder, Émile Marguet, in the late 1800’s Champagne Marguet might be more of a house name amongst wine lovers today. The family history in Champagne dates back to the 1850’s and at their peak they owned 90 hectares of vines. In 1883 Émile made the decision to graft all of his vines onto American rootstocks in the face of the impending invasion of phylloxera, he was one of the first to do so. Unfortunately because he was so far ahead of the curve he was widely ridiculed and even condemned by his peers for making this decision to the point that he was eventually forced to pull all the vines back out and replant. The cost of replanting everything twice in such a short time bankrupt the whole operation and Émile sold off his wonderful collection of vineyards to Champagne Henriot shortly after. Phylloxera didn’t reach Champagne til 1890, just a little too late to vindicate Émile’s decisions. The current iteration of Marguet begins with Benoît’s parents who in the early 70’s created the Marguet-Bonnerave estate and then later his father started a négociant label called, Charles Marguet, which was later renamed Marguet Père et Fils. Benoît began making the wines under both labels in 1999 and by 2005 he took control of the Marguet Père et Fils label entirely. For the first few years all of the fruit was purchased, primarily from premier & grand cru sites that were farmed organically. In 2008 Benoît was finally able to purchase some of the family’s vineyard holdings to be used exclusively for his wines, he was also able to negotiate contracts for fruit from parcels owned by other family members, which he farms himself. Roughly 15% of Marguet’s production still comes from purchased fruit and since 2011 all of the purchased fruit comes exclusively from vineyards that are certified organic or are in conversion to organics.