Champagne Minéral Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru by Agrapart & Fils 2007

As usual for this bottling, originating with two neighboring 40-year-old parcels in Avize near the communal line with Cramant, and vinified roughly half-each in tank and cask, Agrapart's 2007 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Mineral is only coming onto the market this fall in France, and the bottle I tasted in June - with a written-over 2006 label - had been disgorged in January of this year solely for purposes of press tastings. Pleasantly piquant aromatic suggestions of sourdough yeasts, toasted buckwheat and lemon rind have their persistently stimulating counterpart on a strikingly delicate and nuanced palate, with stone, chalk, salt and smoke accenting fresh apple and winter pear. With time, a more caressing textural side emerged. The sense of salivary gland stimulation in the lingering finish is extremely active, and combined with tactile impingements of chalk, radish, lemon rind and active yeasts (figuratively speaking, of course). This is certainly less obviously multi-faceted and energetic than the corresponding "Terroirs" bottling, but utterly intriguing, impressively refined, and likely to merit at least a half dozen years of attention.