Champagne Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Brut Tradition NV Base 13. Disg. Nov 2018

Champagne Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Brut Tradition is the house's core cuvee, drawn entirely from grand cru vineyards on the Montagne de Reims and given far longer on lees than a non-vintage Champagne requires.

Egly-Ouriet is a grower house at Ambonnay, run by Francis Egly since 1982, when he stopped selling fruit to negociants and began bottling everything under the family name. The vines lie in the grand crus of Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay, with a separate premier cru holding at Vrigny kept back for another cuvee. Brut Tradition is roughly seventy per cent Pinot Noir to thirty per cent Chardonnay from those three villages, farmed for low yields and picked late for full ripeness. Fermentation takes place in wood, malolactic conversion is avoided, and reserve wines are held apart by vintage and by site. The wine then spends around four years on lees, well beyond what the appellation asks of a non-vintage, and is finished with a dosage of only a gram or two. This bottling is a 2013 base disgorged in November 2018.

It has the weight and vinosity that mark the house rather than the crispness of a conventional aperitif style. Serve at 8°C with roast chicken, oysters or an aged gruyere.