Wine Advisor
Egly Ouriet, Brut Millesime Grand Cru 2012
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Broad and powerful, Egly's 2012 Brut Grand Cru Millésime is a serious, vinous Champagne somewhat reminiscent of his brilliant 2002. Delivering complex aromas of pear, honeycomb, orange oil, sweet stone fruits, praline and freshly baked bread, it's full-bodied, deep and muscular, with a multidimensional core of fruit, racy acids and a long, resonant finish. Complex and compelling, readers will have a hard time choosing between the power and texture of 2012 and the quintessentially elegant, seamless 2013. Both are benchmarks for what contemporary Champagne can achieve.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Francis Egly's 2012 Brut Grand Cru Millésime is predictably brilliant; but it's also a serious, structured wine that will need time to unwind. Mingling notes of citrus oil, pear and stone fruit with hints of freshly baked bread, praline and baking spices, it's full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, with huge concentration and a taut, layered core. Built around a racy spine of acidity and prodigious reserves of chalky extract, it's long, precise, and remarkably fine-boned and elegant for such a powerful wine. Make no mistake, this is one of the wines of the vintage, but—like the 2008—it will demand patience. With more age on cork, however, I wouldn't be surprised if it began to close in on a three-digit score.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2012 Brut Millésime Grand Cru is a Champagne of tremendous finesse and nuance, with the Chardonnay really driving the balance today. Chalk, white pepper, mint, sage and dried pear are some of the notes that come alive in the glass. Readers will find a brilliant, finely cut Champagne endowed with tremendous energy, especially for the year. This is pure class.
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.
