Wine Advisor
Egly Ouriet, Brut Millesime Grand Cru 2011
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Disgorged in July 2020 with only one gram per liter dosage, Francis Egly's 2011 Brut Grand Cru Millésime is a brilliant wine from a frequently dismissed vintage. Unfurling in the glass with scents of golden orchard fruit, buttery pastry, dried mango, clear honey and praline, it's full-bodied, muscular and vinous, with a broad, textural attack that segues into a deep, concentrated core. Built around bright acids and complemented by a pinpoint mousse, it concludes with a long, sapid finish. In a blind tasting, this is one of a small handful of wines that would be unrecognizable as 2011s, a year that was evidently an acid test for Champenois viticulturists.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Egly's 2011 Brut Grand Cru Millésime may not have the volume of the 2012 or the authority of the 2013, but it is a very successful wine in its own right and clearly one of at most two or three candidates for the title of Champagne of the vintage in this challenging year. Offering up attractive aromas of golden orchard fruit, praline, honeycomb and subtle hints of mocha, it's medium to full-bodied, pillowy and vinous, with chalky structuring extract, racy acids and a pretty pinpoint mousse, concluding with an impressively persistent finish.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2011 Brut Millésime Grand Cru is a very pretty wine, especially within the context of the year. Bright floral notes meld into hints of lemon confit, tangerine oil, dried flowers, sage and pastry. There is terrific freshness to the 2011, although not quite the dimension of the very best years. Even so, this is very clearly one of the finest 2011s readers will come across. I would not push my luck on aging, but there is so much to like and admire here. Francis Egly and his team clearly got the very best out of the year. Disgorged: July, 2020.
About the Producer
Francis Egly sets the standard for wine-growers throughout the Champagne region, with his stringent work ethic, levels of stock that allow long fermentation on lees, and precise labeling that states the date of dis-gorgement and the duration of that fer-mentation on lees. The warm soils of Ambonnay bring the pinot noir to peak ripeness, maintaining a consistent level of quality in his grapes for the past ten years. Egly's two most outstanding cuvees are, first, the incredible, uniquely opulent non-vintage Blanc de Noirs: and the Coteaux Champenois, a wine made in pitifully small quantities but arguably the very best avail-able in Champagne today. But even at entry level, the deliciously subtle, 100 per cent pinot Meunier Les Vignes de Vrigny puts on exemplary performance. This is, in short, the most complete, homogeneous range of wines ever from this exceptional producer, who now boasts ultramodern facilities that should allow him to raise the bar even higher.
