Ployez-Jacquemart Brut Champagne Liesse d’Harbonville 2000

95 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): “The 2000 vintage of the Ployez family’s Tête de Cuvée, the Liesse d’Harbonville, is drinking beautifully at age twenty-one. The cépages is two-thirds chardonnay and the balance split evenly between pinot noir and pinot meunier, with the vins clairs all barrel-fermented, but not undergoing malolactic. The bouquet offers up a deep and complex constellation of baked peach and apple, hazelnut, warm rye bread, a lovely base of soil tones, a touch of buttery oak, plenty of upper register smokiness and a topnote of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, crisp and entering its plateau of peak maturity, with excellent mid-palate depth, refined mousse, bright acids and excellent focus and grip on the long, complex and beautifully balanced finish. This wine has notable weight and depth on the palate and still has plenty of life ahead of it, but it is drinking very well indeed at the present time and it is hard to imagine it getting any better than it is today. 2022-2045. (Nov/Dec 2021)”

94 points Antonio Galloni (Vinous): “The flagship Brut Liesse d’Harbonville is superb in 2000. Vinification in oak adds texture and depth, but what impresses most about the 2000 is its freshness at nearly 20 years of age. Lemon confit, chamomile, dried flowers, kirsch and lightly honeyed tones infuse the 2000 with layers of complexity and nuance as well as character. This is such a gorgeous wine. The 2000 is a wine of character, and also one of the finest Champagnes I can remember tasting here. In a word: terrific. Drink: 2019-2030. (Dec 2019)”

93.7 points CellarTracker.com community score. <