2017 Champagne Agrapart, Avizoise, Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru, Extra Brut

Disgorged: May, 2023.

The 2017 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs L’Avizoise Grand Cru has real breadth and resonance in the naturally softer style of the year. Dried pear, lemon peel, chamomile, white flowers, sage and dried herbs build effortlessly. As is the case across the lineup, the L’Avizoise is a bit lighter in volume than the most important vintages, but it is impeccably balanced. Sourced from 50-year-old hillside vines in the estate’s oldest Grand Cru Parcels, Les Robarts and La Voie D’Épernay, this saw the same 600L tonneaux native yeast fermentation as with the other two micro-cuvées in the lineup Minéral and Vénus).

Drink 2023 - 2030

Disgorged without dosage this year, the 2017 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Avizoise wafts from the glass with attractive aromas of citrus oil, grilled peaches, hazelnuts and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, broad and vinous, it’s layered and concentrated, with a textural core of fruit animated by a pinpoint mousse. It’s a high point of the range this year.

Pascal Agrapart, now handing over the reins to his son Ambroise, is one of the great artisanal winemakers of Champagne, with beautifully situated and thoughtfully farmed parcels, careful winemaking and a terrific track record for producing wines of structure, concentration and complexity that age with grace. This new set of releases has once again turned out beautifully, but that will come as no surprise to readers following Agrapart over the decades, as perpetual improvement is part of this estate’s DNA.

Drink 2023 - 2035