Tasting Notes & Ratings
Grape
Equal parts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, sourced mainly from a single 3.5-hectare family plot in Trigny.
Tasting notes
Les Prémices is fermented with wild yeasts in stainless steel and blended with roughly 50% reserve wine before resting on its lees for around three years, finished with a very low dosage close to 1g/l. That patient élevage shows in a toasty, brioche-and-nut character layered over citrus zest and ripe pear fruit, carried on a fine, persistent mousse. It drinks with more weight and complexity than its position as the house's entry-level cuvée might suggest.
More About The Winery
Champagne Egly-Ouriet is a grower-producer based in Ambonnay, one of the Montagne de Reims' grand cru villages, run by Francis Egly since he took over the family domaine from his grandfather in 1982. Francis moved the estate away from selling grapes to négociants and toward estate-bottling under the family name, built around roughly ten hectares of grand cru vines in Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay, plus family vineyards in Trigny. The house is known across its range for unusually long lees-ageing, and is widely regarded as one of the benchmark grower Champagne estates for combining power with precision.