I’m serious when I say Egly’s newest release is the best of the vintage, at least when compared to the legion of 2011 Champagnes I’ve tasted over the past several years. In my eyes, it’s not even close. Even though it’s right on the red-hot heels of his perfect-scoring 2008—a bottle that will be idolized for years and decades to come—one would be absolutely gutted to miss out on this 2011 Grand Cru.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Egly’s 2008 made history last year, and the consensus was that it was poised to be one of the great Champagnes of modern time. If you missed our limited offering, you’re hardly to blame: Even at $250, this perfectly rated Champagne sold out freakishly quick. Now, the overwhelming majority of retailers are also out of stock, and the cheapest you can find the ‘08 for online is $365, with the ceiling as high as $549 (who says wine isn’t a good investment!). So, why all this talk about the ‘08 when we’re selling the freshly released 2011? Because it’s far cheaper and no less profound. In fact, when considering the demanding vintage, tonight’s 96-months-aged Champagne is arguably the grander feat. I didn’t think a 2011 Grand Cru Champagne could reach this extraordinary level of savory precision and complexity, but then again, this is Egly-Ouriet we’re talking about. Shame on me for doubting. Up to four bottles per person and free shipping on two. Quantities are extremely limited.
Francis Egly isn’t “arguably” or “one of” the best grower-producers in Champagne; he’s in everyone’s top two or three, end of story. He organically farms to a fanatical degree, harvests at absolute perfect levels of ripeness, barrel vinifies, and ages for a flat-out ridiculous amount of time. Egly stands apart from the competition and with each passing year there is renewed acclaim, higher prices, and tighter allocations. All of it is entirely justifiable: Egly-Ouriet consistently releases the greatest wines in the world and his 2008 just went nuclear.
When fourth-generation vigneron Francis Egly took the reins from his father, Michel, back in 1980, organic farming was hardly fashionable in Champagne. Nevertheless, Egly and a few others—labeled as crazy by other Champenois—continued on with their vineyard-first approaches, which helped spawn a grower revolution. French wine writer Michel Bettane (an encourager of the grower movement in the ’80s, and the main reason Francis started bottling his famous “Les Crayères” bottling) has this to say about Egly Ouriet: “Few producers can equal Francis Egly in skill and experience, and larger houses cannot hope to emulate the cultivation norms.” It’s true, and despite the frenzied push for his wines, Francis refuses to sacrifice quality; his vineyard holdings still remain quite small, and he has stayed true to his natural methodologies.
“Bouzy le nom, Ambonnay le renom” (“Bouzy has the name, Ambonnay the fame”) was how Francis Egly answered author Peter Liem’s question about the differences between the Grand Cru villages of Ambonnay and Bouzy. In Ambonnay, Pinot Noir reigns as king because of its ability to produce deep base wines with enough character to shine through in sparkling form. You really taste the Pinot Noir in Egly’s wines because he picks at extreme levels of ripeness, which is typically done after everyone else in Ambonnay has already finished. To Francis, picking ripe, or “late,” is the most important part of the process. He doesn’t consider himself a pioneer or a trendsetter; he just makes the finest quality wine he can—and that starts with perfectly mature, concentrated grapes.
Egly’s Grand Cru Vintage bottlings come from estate-owned Grand Cru Ambonnay fruit that was planted in the 1970s. Vines are farmed organically and Francis has a plowing regimen that aerates the chalky-clay soils here. His multi-level concrete cellars allow the grapes to be fed into French barrels via gravity and thanks to their cold, temperature-controlled cellars, malolactic is blocked. After fermenting on indigenous yeasts and resting further in barrel, the wine was transferred into bottle where it matured on fine lees for 96 months—nearly three times the requirement for Vintage Champagne. The final blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay was dosed with just one gram of sugar and saw no fining or filtration.
If you’re lucky enough to own both the 2011 and 2008 bottlings, an unforgettable wine experience would be to open them side by side. They are entirely different tour de forces: the ‘08 simultaneously luxurious and powerful, the ‘11 elegant, precise, and fantastically savory. In the glass, a wonderful concoction of low-toned, mellow aromas envelops the senses. You’ll uncover bruised red and yellow apple, Rainier cherry, wild plums, underripe pineapple, currant, lemon verbena, dried sage, honeysuckle, and smoky undertones. A profoundly textured and meticulously detailed Champagne, this 2011 Grand Cru deserves to be studied over several hours, around 55 degrees, in large Burgundy stems. Its layers are as sharp and cutting as they are expansive and inviting. Enjoy now with great zeal and stow away any others you have for consumption down the road. I expect this to continue evolving for another 5-10 years, easily. Cheers!
