Domaine Chavost sits in Chavot-Courcourt, on the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay, and takes its name from the ancestral spelling of the village that once stood between the church of Saint-Martin and Mont Félix. Founded in 1946 on collective principles by a group of local growers, it has kept that shared ownership while moving decisively towards a low-intervention style under cellar master Fabian Daviaux.

The five hectares of vines have been certified organic since the 2023 harvest. In the cellar the approach is deliberately bare: no acidification, no deacidification, no chaptalisation, no dosage, and no added sulphites. What reaches the bottle is the fruit and the site, with nothing added to flatter either.

Paradoxe is named for the contradiction it contains. It is the house’s first non-vintage assemblage, drawing on reserve wines across several harvests — the most classical of Champagne techniques — while holding to the domaine’s radical no-additive discipline. The blend is led by Chardonnay with a substantial share of Pinot Meunier, vinified half in 4,000-litre foudres and half in stainless steel, then aged eighteen months on lees.

The result is a Champagne of unusual clarity and tension: dry in the fullest sense, more a wine than an aperitif, and best served in a proper glass at cellar temperature.