Egly-Ouriet Brut Grand Cru Millésime 2014 is a powerhouse vintage Champagne that blends 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay from Ambonnay’s top vineyards. Rich and textural with layers of pear, apricot, almond, and honey, it balances serious depth with laser-sharp acidity and a long, salty finish. Still youthful, it’s built to evolve beautifully over the next two decades.

The Wine Advocate | RP 97
Published: Dec 14, 2023
Drink: 2024-2044

One of the very finest wines produced in this less heralded vintage is Egly's 2014 Brut Grand Cru Millésime, a strikingly vinous and enveloping Champagne that wafts from the glass with aromas of pear, mirabelle plum, freshly baked bread, almond paste and honeycomb. Full-bodied, satiny and layered, its textural attack segues into a deep, concentrated mid-palate of exceptional purity and cut, concluding with a long, penetrating and mouthwateringly saline finish. As ever, it's a blend of some 70% Pinot Noir with 30% Chardonnay from Ambonnay's greatest terroirs.

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.

Decanter | D 96
Published: Jan 7, 2024
Drink: 2026-2036

The freshness of the 2014 vintage is felt without any of its slacker, looser characteristics in yet another example of Egly-Ouriet excelling in a variable year. In youth the roasted pear, apricot skin and honey-nut aromas sit still, restrained slightly in gingerbread spice and the firm framing of élevage, ready to spring with two to three years more on cork. A bright and fluid iteration of this wine, likely to hit its sweet spot with five to 10 years on cork. 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay from Ambonnay, all vinified in barrel.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 12.50%
Body: Medium
Grapes: 30% Chardonnay 70% Pinot Noir / Pinot Nero