Marguet

Champagne Marguet was created around 1875 by Emile Marguet. As early as 1883 he grafted his best plots in the Côte des Blancs and the Grande Montagne de Reims in anticipation of the arrival of phylloxera. Champagne Marguet Père et Fils is listed as a grower in Ambonnay, at 1 Place Barancourt.

• Created around 1875 by Emile Marguet
• 1883: Emile Marguet grafted his best plots in anticipation of phylloxera
• Grower estate based in Ambonnay

Benoît Marguet is a biodynamic winemaker in Ambonnay who has used draft horses for soil work since 2010. He also practises phytotherapy, replacing pesticides with herbal infusions and decoctions, and aromatherapy, treating the vines with essential oils. He is named as publication director of the Champagne Marguet website. Writing in Decanter in April 2026, Tom Hewson called him 'Ambonnay's biodynamic pioneer' and recorded his view that 'things are changing' when it comes to quality viticulture. In the same report Hewson wrote of Benoît Marguet's 'natural, almost spiritual approach to winemaking'.

• Benoît Marguet: biodynamic winemaker in Ambonnay
• Draft horses used for soil work since 2010
• Phytotherapy in place of pesticides; aromatherapy with essential oils

Marguet's vines lie in Ambonnay, with 7.30 hectares, and Bouzy, with 0.70 hectares, and the estate team gives their average age as 40 years. Marguet's Ambonnay localities include Les Saints Remys, Les Beurys, Les Crayères, La Grande Ruelle, Les Bermonts and Le Parc; in Bouzy the estate names the Hannepés and a locality its English site calls the lodges. Four Ambonnay lieux-dits have their own cuvée sheets on the estate's site.

• Les Bermonts: 0.47 ha at 110 m, vines planted in 1952, beige clay and limestone soil over Santonian white chalk at 75 cm
• Les Crayères: 1.35 ha at 130 m, vines planted in 1958 and 1974, clay-limestone soil on white Campanian chalk at 35 cm
• Le Parc: 1.37 ha at 120 m, vines planted in 1982, deep sandy loam soil with chalk at 1.80 m
• Les Saints Remys: 0.37 ha at 165 m, vines planted in 1975 and 1992, silt and red clay on chalk at 80 cm

Marguet's vineyard receives biodynamic preparations, phytotherapy (maceration, infusion and decoction of medicinal plants) and aromatherapy (essential oils). Since 2010 the estate has worked the soil with horses rather than heavy machinery. In Marguet's own account, the horse connects the work directly to the chalk, the mineral substrate of the vineyard, and promotes the endemic flora in the vines and the vineyard's biodiversity. The Marguet site shows Organic Agriculture and Demeter certificates.

• Biodynamic preparations, phytotherapy and aromatherapy
• Soil worked with horses since 2010
• Organic Agriculture and Demeter certificates

In Marguet's cellar the juice is moved mainly by gravity, and each locality and each cru ferments individually in barrels before long ageing on the lees. Marguet treats the wines with naturopathy if necessary and uses sulphites only when the vintage requires it, and then only at harvest and in very low doses. Marguet's cuvée sheets give 0 mg/l total SO2 for Ambonnay Grand Cru and Le Parc and 10 mg/l for Shaman. On a 2022 visit Benoît Marguet told Tom Hewson of Decanter: 'I don't care about the ageing potential of my wines. My wines are extremely low in sulphur, and they age very well.'

• Juice moved mainly by gravity
• Each locality and each cru fermented individually in barrels
• Long ageing on the lees
• Sulphites only when the vintage requires, at harvest and in very low doses

Marguet's Shaman and Shaman Rosé are Grand Cru blends from estate vines in Ambonnay and Bouzy: Shaman is 84% Pinot Noir and 16% Chardonnay, Shaman Rosé 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. Marguet's cru cuvées come from Ambonnay, Avize, Bouzy, Chouilly, Le Mesnil sur Oger, Oger and Vertus. The Ambonnay lieux-dits Les Bermonts, Les Crayères and Le Parc are bottled as 100% Chardonnay and Les Saints Remys as 100% Pinot Noir. Marguet presents Sapience as the 'first exceptional Champagne certified from organically grown grapes'; it blends Pinot Noir and Meunier from Ambonnay and Cumières/Hautvillers, with production years 2006 to 2015, 2017 and 2018. Sapience Oenothèque blends 50% Chardonnay, 25% Meunier and 25% Pinot Noir, with production years 2007 to 2011 and 2013, and a Sapience Rosé completes the range. Marguet's Yuman Blanc de Blancs is 100% Chardonnay from Villeneuve-Renneville and Villers-Marmery, and its Coteaux Champenois wines include Ambonnay Blanc, Ambonnay Rouge and Bouzy Rouge.

• Shaman Grand Cru: 84% Pinot Noir, 16% Chardonnay, from Ambonnay and Bouzy
• Shaman Rosé Grand Cru: 80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir
• Ambonnay Grand Cru: 92% Chardonnay, 8% Pinot Noir; production 2,927 bottles
• Bouzy Grand Cru: 100% Pinot Noir; production 1,841 bottles
• Sapience range: Sapience, Sapience Rosé and Sapience Oenothèque
• Coteaux Champenois: Ambonnay Blanc, Ambonnay Rouge, Bouzy Rouge

In Decanter's Wines of the Year 2022, for which nominated bottles were tasted blind and scored by an expert panel, Marguet's Sapience 1er Cru Brut Nature 2010 scored 96 points. The tasting note calls it an oxidative style of Champagne with evolved notes of truffle, honey and baked apple and evidence of oak ageing, and gives the blend as 50% Chardonnay, 33% Pinot Meunier and 17% Pinot Noir. In a March 2024 Decanter feature on ageing grower Champagne, Tom Hewson wrote that Marguet's single-village vintage wines regularly fetch over £85 per bottle and can benefit from a short period of cellar ageing to open up.

• Decanter Wines of the Year 2022: Sapience 1er Cru Brut Nature 2010, 96 points

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/vines/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/cellars/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/horses/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/the-sapience-range/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/legal-notice/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/shaman/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/shaman-rose/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/ambonnay-grand-cru-2/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/bouzy-grand-cru/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/les-bermonts-gran-cru-lieu-dit/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/les-crayeres-grand-cru-lieu-dit/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/le-parc-grand-cru-lieu-dit/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/les-saints-remys-grand-cru-lieu-dit/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/sapience/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/sapience-oenotheque/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/champagne/yuman-blanc-de-blancs/, https://champagne-marguet.fr/en/about/. Official source: Champagne producer directory, https://www.champagne.fr/en/visit-champagne/directory-champagne-producers/champagne-marguet-pere-et-fils. Secondary sources: Decanter (Tom Hewson, 13 April 2026), https://www.decanter.com/wine/wine-regions/champagne-report-the-two-faces-of-the-montagne-de-reims/; Decanter (Tom Hewson, 16 March 2024), https://www.decanter.com/premium/ageing-grower-champagne-the-peaks-and-pitfalls-524488/; Decanter Wines of the Year 2022, https://www.decanter.com/wines-of-the-year-2022-sparkling-score-table/. Last verified 2026-10-21. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.