Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Les Crayeres Blanc De Noirs Vieilles-Vignes Disg July 25, Champagne

Vintages: 2018 (50%), 2017 (50%)

Bottling: 2019

Disgorgement: July 2025

Time on lees: 72 months

In some ways, this is the emblematic wine of the Domaine. It was Michel Bettane, the influential French critic, who encouraged Francis Egly to bottle this single-vineyard wine separately, with the first release based on the 1989 harvest. This latest offering was bottled after the 2018 base had spent close to one year in cask before blending with 50% reserve wines from the 2017 vintage. The vinification and aging for both vintages took place in barrel.

The fruit comes from old Pinot Noir vines in a single terroir known as Les Crayères. The vines here were planted in 1946, so they are now 80 years old (vines of this age are extremely rare in Champagne). The soil is barely 30cm deep, then it’s chalk, hundreds of metres down—hence the name of the site (craie is French for ‘chalk’; crayères references chalk quarries which likely once existed here). Les Crayères is situated mid-slope with a full south-facing exposure, not far from the Estate’s cellars. The old vines are deeply rooted, giving the wine a classic mineral energy that weaves its way through the powerful, layered Pinot Noir fruit. The deep concentration is a product of the ripeness and low yields that the site and its ancient vines confer.

From a year Francis Egly described as “perfect,” the 2018 base is a tribute to the greatest sites of Ambonnay and the Egly-Ouriet Domaine. Houses that emphasise blending may consider a 100% old-vine Ambonnay like this to be too intense; Egly gives it to you full throttle! This release has both profound depth and incredible finesse. It’s still early days for the nose (if you open it now, give it time), while the palate is already stunning: a layered yet chiselled, mineral mouth bomb. The dosage is only 1 g/L, and it’s invisible. As always, this unique expression of a singular terroir is built for food and aging. It’s wonderful now, but give it one to three years, and it will be even better.  

Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Les Crayères Blanc de Noirs Vieilles-Vignes is an extraordinary grower Champagne and a true reference point for what old vine Pinot Noir from Ambonnay can achieve. Les Crayères is a single vineyard perched on deep chalk, the name itself referencing the ancient limestone quarries beneath the slope. The vines are famously old, some planted in the mid-1940s, producing tiny yields of intensely concentrated fruit. Naturally fermented, matured in oak and given Egly-Ouriet’s signature lengthy ageing on lees before disgorgement, this is a wine built for both power and patience: vinous, textural and profoundly mineral.

The aromas unfold with dark cherry, redcurrant and blood orange, intertwined with saffron, cocoa nib, dried rose and gently smoky flint. Time on lees reveals layers of toasted hazelnut, almond pastry and subtle brioche while the chalky terroir expresses itself in crushed shells and a cool stony breeze. It evolves constantly in the glass, hinting at deeper reserves still to come.

The palate is intense, structured and deeply savoury. Dense Pinot fruit glides across a powerful frame, carried by fine bubbles and brilliant acidity. Flavours of raspberry liqueur, wild plum, citrus peel and salted almond build into notes of spice, cocoa, roasted nuts and chalk dust. The finish seems to stretch on indefinitely, driven by a mineral pulse and firm yet polished tannins that speak more to fine red Burgundy than typical sparkling wine. It is already hauntingly complex but will reward fifteen to twenty years of cellaring, becoming even more layered, truffled and textural with time.

An unforgettable match for duck breast, wagyu carpaccio, mushroom dishes, lobster with butter, or aged Comté. It is a Champagne of immense personality and depth, crafted for those who love the intersection of terroir intensity and vinous luxury.