Agrapart Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne "L'Avizoise" 2012

96 points Antonio Galloni (Vinous): "The 2012 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru L’Avizoise is another riveting wine from Pascal Agrapart. Here, too, the interplay of textural richness and finesse is utterly captivating. Lemon confit, white flowers, mint and orchard fruit all develop, but it is the wine's feel and stunning balance that make it impossible to resist a second taste, and then a third. L'Avizoise emerges from old vine parcels in the Robards and Voie d'Epernay lieux-dits. In a word: exceptional! Dosage is 5 grams per liter. Disgorged: July 2018. (Nov 2018)"

95 points Stephan Reinhardt (Wine Advocate): "From more clayey plots in Avize (Les Roberts and Les Gros Yeux), the 2012 Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut L'Avizoise fermented and aged entirely in barrels. It aged under natural cork for almost five years (at least this disgorgement from March 2018). The wine has a clear, deep, well-defined and quite fruity but also slightly flinty bouquet. Round, finessed and very elegant on the palate, this is a beautifully salty, focused, fresh and delicate Blanc de Blancs with a long, aromatic, precise and balanced finish. This is fabulous! Tasted very soon after the disgorgement in April 2018, so there is further potential. Drink: 2018-2040. (Aug 2018)"

95 points James Suckling: "A toasty nose with grilled hazelnuts and a ripe-smelling, yellow-fruit edge, as well as flinty grapefruit. The texture is round, rich and really vinous with plenty of exotic, mouth-filling, expansively fleshy yellow fruit. Hints of roasted coffee and grilled nuts to close. Sharp focus at the finish. Drink or hold. (9/5/18)"

95 points Tyson Stelzer (The Champagne Guide): "(vines 50–60 years of age; fully vinified in old oak barrels; aged on lees under natural cork; tasted with no dosage, the final blend will have 3g/L dosage). Just 600–800 metres from the parcels that comprise Minéral, here the soils are deep clay over chalk, expressing a very different personality of frothy, salty chalk texture that contrasts the creamy mouthfeel of full barrel fermentation. This makes for a rich blanc de blancs, counterpointed by bitter grapefruit pith that sits comfortably within its generosity, backed with the roast nuts and toast of full barrel vinification. For all of its magnitude, there is exacting Agrapart focus here, defined by fine chalk minerality that marks out a finish of profound persistence. A credit to a great season, this is a captivating and characterful Avizoise that seamlessly, if daringly, unites grand expression of soil with the strong presence of its maker’s method. (2020-2021)"