Description
“Egly Ouriet is one of the reference point growers in Champagne, with a deep selection of wines that offer remarkable transparency to site, vintage and variety … These are among the most pure, unmanipulated Champagnes readers will come across, and the estate’s new releases are all highly recommended.” Antonio Galloni, The Wine Advocate.
This is the emblematic wine from Francis Egly and the one that first brought him international acclaim. It was Michel Bettane, the influential French critic, who encouraged Egly to bottle this single vineyard wine and the first vintage was 1989. As you will know, this wine has always been the product of a single vintage. This is no longer the case. The cuvée offered today is the first Blanc de Noirs that is a blend of two harvests. This particular wine comes from 60 percent 2007 and 40 per cent from 2006, with 100 per cent vinification in barrique. The fruit derives from a single vineyard known as Les Crayères. The vines here were planted in 1946. It’s an exceptional terroir the soil is hardly 30cm deep, then comes the chalk, hundreds of metres deep. Hence the name of the site (craie is French for chalk). The vines are deeply rooted in this chalk, which gives the wine its classic, mineral signature that is woven through the red fruit depth and power – a product of the ripeness and the concentration of the old vine Pinot Noir. Dosage is a negligible 1 2g/l. Made entirely from vines that are close to 70 years old, this is both a tribute to the greatest sites of Ambonnay and to the Egly Ouriet Domaine. Houses that emphasise blending may consider a 100 per cent old vine Ambonnay like this to be too rich. Egly gives it to you pure and powerful. It’s a unique wine, built for food and for ageing. Always better a year or two after landing, this will be very hard to keep your (our) hands off. Like all Egly Champagnes. it’s a wine first and a Champagne second.
“It epitomises the golden sunlight, glowing warmth and magnificent mineral expression of Egly-Ouriet. The mineral character of the site speaks articulately in softly salty tones that will stir the depths of your soul.” 97 points, Tyson Stelzer, Decanter Magazine, October 2015
RRP $490