Back-vintage Champagnes like the 2010 and 2012 releases are becoming harder to find in retail distribution, making bottles like today’s featured 2012 Ployez-Jacquemart Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs “Dosage Zéro” an absolute prize for serious collectors. While the standard 2012 Ployez-Jacquemart Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs scored a glowing 95 points from Wine Spectator, this far scarcer “Dosage Zéro” version flew under the radar of the big critics simply because there isn't enough of it to go around. Pulled from the exact same world-class Premier and Grand Cru Chardonnay plots—spanning the house's cold chalk slopes in Ludes to legendary terroirs in the Côte des Blancs—this is pure non-dosage, vintage Champagne firing on all cylinders with zero added sugar.
Third-generation winemaker Laurence Ployez doesn't make corporate, predictable Champagne. Working out of her family's historic estate, she vinifies strictly in un-oaked stainless steel using only pristine first-press juice—no wood makeup, no shortcuts. Her cellar regimen is uncompromising: the wine ages sur pointe (nose-to-punt) in 25-meter-deep chalk cellars to preserve piercing fruit intensity without getting bogged down by heavy lees. Bottled as a true non-dosage cuvée with no added sugar post-disgorgement, there is nothing to hide behind. What you get is raw, unfiltered saline energy and unadulterated Chardonnay purity.
Imagine tasting Cru White Burgundy with fine pinpoint bubbles and exquisite mousse. On release, it slammed the palate with the razor-sharp, bone-dry intensity of a top-tier Premier Cru Chablis. Now, with over a decade of bottle age under its belt, it has morphed into something far more sophisticated—drinking like a fully throttled Puligny-Montrachet Les Perrières. Expect a surge of crushed chalk, lemon curd, raw hazelnut, and vibrant white florals backed by a ferocious, mouthwatering streak of ocean air. If you crave mineral drive, well-orchestrated precision, and terroir-driven earthtones over mass-market fluff, snap this up before it vanishes entirely.
Santé!
