Amaury Beaufort
Polisy, Champagne
Amid the endless red tape of Champagne bureaucracy, those blessed with the fascination for natural wines need little introduction to the name Beaufort.
Domaine André & Jacques Beaufort is perhaps one of the region’s most established when discussing progressive viticulture, pioneers as they were from 1971 when they first rallied against the use of helicopters to distribute herbicides and pesticides in blanket sprays across the region. In 1974 they were the first in the region to forgo the use of copper-sulphur spray and begin experimentations with natural oils and tea mixtures, and in 1980 they became a fully homeopathic operation. Every step of the way they were embattled with the Champagne appellation, and while they made a few friends and acquired a few disciples, the domaine remains to this day an outsider amongst the dogged commercialisation and industrialisation of the region.
In 2018, a new chapter of this impressive family story opened with Amaury Beaufort harvesting his first vintage in Polisy from a stunning 1 hectare parcel planted 50 years earlier by his father, Jacques.
Being a Beaufort site, the vines have never seen chemicals. The sloped hill parcel is planted with pinot noir constituting 4/5 of the site’s vines and the remaining 1/5 dedicated to chardonnay. From the top of the slope, vines sit atop the region’s prized Kimmeridgian clays and as the elevation diminishes Portlandian clay takes over. Visually stunning as it is, the parcel is also unique in its training of the vines: Amaury likes to allow the canopies to grow much higher than would normally be seen in Champagne, allowing the plant to harvest more energy and its roots to grow deeper.
Calling it his “garden,” Amaury Beaufort’s work, in some ways, begins and ends in the vineyard. For this vigneron, winemaking comes secondary to farming, considering it a “hobby.” Humble as he may be, Amaury’s work in the cellar is unsurprisingly extremely detailed and well-judged. He produces Champagnes without additions, that undergo long elevages in large, conical casks to promote natural movement of the lees, with secondary fermentation produced via the addition of musts frozen from the previous vintage.
He has rebuilt the cellar himself and is building up space within for wines little by little, populating the chai with further barrels so he can age his still wines longer before blending.
Amaury Beaufort could quite easily have continued to rest on the well-deserved laurels of his family name, and yet has quietly taken on this beautiful project in hommage to the legacy of one of the region’s most influential families. In treading his own, new path, he is creating stunning wines, full of honesty, history, and spirit.
