CHAMPAGNE EGLY-OURIET Coteaux Champenois 'Ambonnay' 2021

Grape

100% Pinot Noir

Tasting notes

Ambonnay Grand Cru is renowned for yielding some of the finest Pinot Noir in all of Champagne, and this still red from Egly-Ouriet lives up to that legacy. Those familiar with the power and precision of their Champagnes will find the same level of craftsmanship here. The nose is expressive, with aromas of ripe raspberries, crushed minerals, wildflowers, and a hint of spice. On the palate, it’s both silky and substantial, with a texture reminiscent of Chambolle-Musigny. Flavors of red berries, delicate vanilla, and mineral undertones lead to an exceptionally long, lingering finish.

The Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge Cuvée des Grands Côtés 2020 from Egly-Ouriet is not a champagne, but a wine from Champagne, which is produced in limited quantities only. It is sourced from very old and fine pinot vines.

This superb wine is vinified in barrels for 22 months and must be discovered as soon as possible. It will be perfect with iodized dishes. The small Pinots Noirs of 2020 brought a lot of concentration and wealth.

About the winery

Francis Egly's champagnes impress with theexceptional quality of their base wines. They are powerful, terroir-expressive sparkling wines that are mainly based on Pinot Noir. Given that the Domaine is one of the most renowned producers of winemaking champagne today, it has not been in this business that long. Before Francis Egly took over the helm in 1982, most of the grapes were sold to negociants.

The charismatic and strong-willed winemaker changed this almost immediately and fundamentally, so that he was quickly mentioned in the same breath as Anselme Selosse and still is when the most formative figures of the champagne winemaking movement are mentioned.

Of the 12 hectares on the estate, eight are in Ambonnay and the rest in Bouzy, Verzenay and Vrigny. The 2 hectares in Vrigny are planted with Pinot Meunier, the rest 70% with Pinot Noir and 30% with Chardonnay. The age of the vines goes back to 1947.

Francis Egly spends most of his work in the vineyard and is an advocate of very ripe grape material and the associated late harvest. In the cellar, he mostly uses used oak barrels for his base wines (for a maximum of 8 months), which he sources in Burgundy. Egly is convinced that wood gives his champagnes more structure, complexity, terroir expression and storage potential. He also loves to develop individual parcels separately. Only natural yeasts are used, it is neither fined nor filtered and - depending on their nature - the wines go through malolactic fermentation or not.

After the tirage, the champagnes spend a long time on the lees: Brut Tradition and Vignes de Vrigny for at least 3 years, the other cuvées even longer. Egly recently introduced temperature control in all of his cellars, which he sees as helping to reduce the amount of sulfur that needs to be added.

In addition to its sparkling wines, which are sought after worldwide and are always highly praised by the guild of critics, the House of Egly-Ouriet also prepares the still largely undisputed most elegant and most complete still wines (Coteaux Champenois) in all of Champagne. These are extremely profound Pinot Noirs of Burgundian format, which ripen excellently, but are usually difficult to obtain due to the small quantities.