Egly-Ouriet
Vintner champagne at the highest level - natural wines with complex aromas
Region: Ambonnay Grand Cru
Annual production: approx. 100'000 bottles
Size: 12 hectares
Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier
Francis Egly's champagnes are characterized by the exceptional quality of their base wines. They are powerful, terroir-expressive sparkling wines based mainly on Pinot Noir. Although the domain is now one of the most renowned vintners' champagnes, it has not been in the business that long. Before Francis Egly took the helm in 1982, most of the grapes were sold to merchants or other houses.
Of the 12 hectares of vines, 8 are in Ambonnay, the rest in Bouzy, Verzenay and Vrigny. The 2 hectares in Vrigny are planted with Meunier, the rest is 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. The age of the vines dates back to 1947.
Francis Egly spends most of his time working in the vineyard and is an advocate of very ripe grapes. In the cellar, he mainly uses used oak barrels (for a maximum ageing period of 8 months), which he sources from Burgundy. Egly is convinced that the wood gives the champagne more structure, complexity, terroir expression and ageing potential. He also likes to age individual parcels separately. Only natural yeasts are used, there is no fining or filtering and, depending on the nature of the base wine, the wines may or may not undergo malolactic fermentation.
After bottling, Egly-Ouriet's champagnes spend a long time on the lees: Brut Tradition and Vignes de Vrigny for at least 3 years, the other cuvées for much longer. Recently, Egly has introduced temperature control in all its cellars, which he believes reduces the amount of sulphur that needs to be added!