Longtime SommSelect members may already know the Egly-Ouriet story by heart: This is the standard-setting estate for the ever-expanding legion of Champagne houses who grow and vinify all of their own grapes. These “grower-producers” (from the French récoltant-manipulant, indicated by a tiny ‘RM’ on the label) have really seized the moment with sommeliers and retailers, as the story of a scrappy, small-scale, family-owned vineyard doing battle with Champagne’s grandes marques – many of them owned by luxury-goods conglomerates – is an easy one to get behind. The thing with Egly-Ouriet is that it’s now a formidable “brand” in its own right, with as much cachet as any in Champagne. It has transcended its humble ‘RM’ moniker and become a grande marque – albeit an under-priced, under-marketed one – in its own right.

The fastidious Francis Egly, who has been in charge here since 1980, is the fourth generation to work his family’s vineyards. Their holdings have expanded to about 12 hectares, most of them in the Grand Cru-classified village of Ambonnay – home to some of Champagne’s, if not all of France’s – greatest Pinot Noir. Yes, there’s Chardonnay in there, too, but organically farmed, old-vine Pinot Noir is at the heart of every Egly-Ouriet cuvée (save for a 100% Pinot Meunier he makes from vines in the village of Vrigny). The well-traveled Champagne writer Peter Liem dubbed Egly-Ouriet “Burgundy with bubbles,” and indeed Egly has inspired many new-generation Champagne producers to shift the focus away from blending and ‘branding’ and toward a more vineyard-specific model in the Burgundy mold (i.e., treat it like wine, not whisky).

At the top of the Egly-Ouriet heap sits “Les Crayères,” 100% Pinot Noir from Egly’s Ambonnay vineyard of the same name. To paraphrase Liem, this is Grand Cru Pinot Noir, with a pedigree to rival anything from Burgundy, which just happens to be effervescent with very light color. The vines are 70+ years old, rooted in chalk, and Francis Egly harvests it late, giving the Pinot Noir time to develop its vinous (yes, vinous!) depth. The wine is completely barrel-fermented and, as with all Egly-Ouriet wines, it is distinguished by its exceptionally long (75 month!) aging on its lees. This, in fact, is something to comment on in more depth: by law, all Champagnes are aged on their lees – the spent yeast cells left in the bottle after the second fermentation – for at least a year. The process lends Champagnes their creamy, nutty, biscuit/bread dough texture and complexity. Longer lees aging obviously deepens and intensifies that, especially when you’re starting with a base wine of exceptional ripeness. Champagne is a marginal climate where acid is always in abundance; what is less common is a ‘base’ wine for a Champagne that is actually drinkable in its own right before it is subjected to a second fermentation. This might be Egly’s greatest triumph (and he does, in fact, produce a benchmark bottling of ‘Coteaux Champenois’ AOC, a rare example of a ‘still’ Pinot Noir made in Champagne).