In Avize, there’s an unusual producer quietly shaping the future of Champagne. Sanger isn't a typical domaine: it’s the teaching winery of Avize Viti Campus, the region’s premier winemaking school. This isn’t just a place where Champagne is made—it’s a place where Champagne is learned, explored, and perfected, vintage after vintage.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a scholarship to offer you to this school. But we can still offer you a mini Champagne lesson with Sanger’s "Voyage 360" Brut Nature. This wine, the product of students guided by master winemakers and growers (see our Grower Champagne guide), offers a great teaching moment.

The 360 is an interesting name choice. Does it refer to the number of students in the program? There are 380, so that’s pretty close. It surely also refers to the approach employed in making this wine, taking as it does a full 360-degree tour of Champagne terroirs and techniques as they exist today.

Let’s start with variety: this is a perfect blend of Champagne’s 3 principal grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. It features a variety of different terroirs, with grapes from 42 different vineyards.

In the cellar, practices are similarly down the middle. For some of the wine, the malos are blocked. In other wines, the malos are left to proceed naturally. There is the addition of 30% reserve wines. These are techniques used to round out and enrichen the wine….but not too much.

So what is the teaching moment? This Champagne represents a perfect snapshot of what the region is capable of producing today, with current climatic trends and with contemporary techniques. To give you as transparent a window as possible, no dosage is added – this wine is Brut Nature.

And we must say, it is totally delicious! It’s the kind of Champagne that can remind you why Champagne is so popular, and why you love it. Yes, it is fun exploring the individual terroirs and wine styles of the region, but there is also something so compelling about tasting the essence of Champagne itself. That’s what this 360 degree tour of the region can offer.

Sanger Champagne Avize Brut Nature Voyage 360 NV - $49.99