Ployez-Jacquemart Extra Quality Brut Champagne

"For fans of rich and toasty wines, this is loaded with notes of grilled nut, coffee, baked apple and brioche, but a firm backbone of acidity keeps this fresh and focused throughout. Well-knit, with a fine, lacy bead and a finish of citrus and mineral accents." Wine Spectator 93 Points

Ployez-Jacquemart blends wines while respecting the typicality of each grape harvest. Our Extra Quality Brut champagne can be tasted following ageing of a minimum of three years. Our Extra Quality Brut is a blend of Premier and Grand Crus with a majority of Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes (usually 60% black grapes and 40% white grapes). Our black grapes provide greater richness, complexity and roundness. We only use pure Cuvées (first pressings) and the make-up of this blend only exceptionally uses reserve wines when the grape harvest quality is too low. All this explains its very good balance, the extreme freshness of our wines and its very sharp bouquet and palate. This also means we can use low dosages to allow all of the aromas of our Extra Quality Brut to filter through.

"Ployez-Jacquemart is a family run champagne house, established by the husband and wife team of Marcel Ployez and Yvonne Jacquemart in 1930. The essence of Ployez-Jacquemart rests in our continual search for excellence and our remarkable abilities to make truly fine wines. These skills have been passed down through three generations. Deep-seated pride in our product and heritage are the cornerstones of our traditional approach to champagne production.

Ours is a house with a passion for superlative wines aimed at those who appreciate the very best that life has to offer. Ployez-Jacquemart is found on the wine lists of gourmet restaurants in France and around the globe, a clear testament to our consistent pursuit of perfection.

At Ployez-Jacquemart, we work our own predominantly Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vineyards in the Premier and Grand Cru villages of Ludes and Mailly Champagne. Tremendous care is taken while working these vines by hand; if necessary, we will even harvest “unripe” grapes to ensure the overall quality of the harvest.

At Ployez-Jacquemart, strict rules are followed each year to ensure that the very best is made of each harvest. We use a blend of grapes from our own Grand Cru vineyards, and produce from a handful of carefully selected wine growers, many of whom we have been working with for 20 years. All the grapes are picked by hand and then sorted by variety, cru and the vineyard where they were grown – this forms the basis for the pressing at the estate. No expense is spared, only the juice from the first pressing is considered of sufficient quality for our use.

Laurence Ployez’s meticulous attention to every detail is evident at every stage of the process. Grape musts are left to settle not once but twice before fermentation. The wine is moved frequently from one vat to another to ensure a high level of oxygenation; light filtration is used for wines produced in vats but none at all for those aged in wooden barrels.

When it comes to wine making, the use of traditional yeasts, combined with very slow bottle fermentation in our cold 25-meter deep cellars, give our wines extremely fine bubbles.

Our mission is to leave the structure of each wine intact, letting the true character and personality of the harvest shine through. When the time comes to disgorge, after up to 12 years in our cellars, only a very minimal “dosage” is added, typically 3-4g/litre. This method helps us to produce aromatic fruity wines with a very clean palate and a long finish while paying close attention to the fine balance between alcohol/acidity and complexity/freshness."