Versatile Agrapart & Fils • Extra-brut Blanc De Blancs Grand Cru Vénus 2017 Get 75% Off Today [Oulb1oAy]

95 points - Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, December 2023

The 2017 Extra-Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Vénus is more ethereal than the richer Avizoise, offering up aromas of white flowers, sweet stone fruits and fresh hazelnuts, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and pillowy palate with a mineral, fine-boned profile and a long, saline finish. It's proof that, despite the vintage's poor reputation, some seriously compelling wines were made in 2017, especially from Chardonnay.

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 who have been following Agrapart over the decades, as perpetual improvement is part of this estate's DNA.

- William Keeley