Egly-Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny NV is a vibrant, 100% Pinot Meunier Champagne that's all about freshness and precision. It's got flavors of green apple, apricot, citrus, and a touch of almond, with a bright, clean finish. Based on the 2019 vintage (with a bit from 2018 and 2017), this is a lively, no-oak, low-dosage Champagne that shows Meunier at its snappy, juicy best. Great now, even better with a little time after disgorgement.

Decanter | D 93
Published: Jan 7, 2024
Drink: 2024-2028

This cuvée is always such a clear-eyed picture of snappy, fragrant Meunier full of just-ripe apricot, fresh almonds and an almost citric focus on the palate. Based on the 2019 vintage with reserves from 2018 and 2017, there's plenty of fleshy orange ripeness from these two years, but not an inch of fat. This needs at least six months post-disgorgement to really come out of itself. A 100% Meunier from the village of Vrigny in the Petite Montagne de Reims. No oak.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 12.50%
Body: Medium
Grapes: 100% Pinot Meunier

The Wine Advocate | RP 92
Published: Dec 14, 2023
Drink: 2023-2033

Based on the 2019 vintage and disgorged this year with three grams per liter dosage, the NV Brut Premier Cru Les Vignes de Vrigny wafts from the glass with aromas of green apple, white flowers, freshly baked bread and crushed mint. Medium to full-bodied, pure and fleshy, it's vinous and precise, with racy acids and a sapid finish.

Far from resting on the considerable and merited laurels that he has accrued over a 30-year career, Francis Egly has continued to refine and improve. The last decade's innovations include refrigerated press pans to immediately cool the must in ever-warmer vintages, a peristaltic pump to handle his wines even more gently and a once-again expanded cellar that gives him the space to work still more precisely. Just like his work in the vineyards, investment in the winery has been incessant. Starting from next to nothing when he began in the 1980s, today Egly holds some 700,000 bottles in reserve wines and wine maturing sur lattes—equivalent to seven times his annual production.

As readers will know, Egly picks ripe grapes and ferments most of his wines in barrel—some 10% to 15% of which are renewed every year, and all of which derive from the cooperage of his friend, Dominique Laurent—before subjecting them to lengthy sur lattes maturation, typically disgorging with less than three grams per liter dosage these days. But the devil is in the details; no winemaker in Champagne is more precise or meticulous, from vineyard to cellar. These latest releases once again come warmly recommended.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 92
Published: Dec 11, 2015

This is a stylish and rich Champagne with peach, orange peel and hints of pie crust character on the nose and palate. Dense and rich yet agile and fresh. A delicious Champagne offering more than just an aperitif. Drink now.