NV Egly-Ouriet - Champagne Extra-Brut VP (750ml) [PRE ARRIVAL]

Egly-Ouriet traces back to just after World War II, when a Parisian left the city for Ambonnay, married locally, and worked as a vineyard laborer for others before slowly acquiring his own plots. His son Michel expanded those holdings, and Michel's son Francis, who took over in 1982, made the defining decision to bottle the estate's entire harvest under its own name rather than selling grapes to négociants. That choice helped establish Egly-Ouriet as one of grower Champagne's reference points. Today the domaine farms around 12 hectares, nearly all Grand Cru, across Ambonnay, Bouzy, and Verzenay, with a small premier cru Pinot Meunier parcel in Vrigny.

V.P., short for Vieillissement Prolongé, is Egly's flagship non-vintage bottling, built from roughly 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay drawn from old vines across those grand cru sites. The base wine ferments partly in barrel and is blended with several years of reserve wine, then rests on its lees for around seven years, well beyond Champagne's typical minimum, before a low-dosage disgorgement.

This is a full-bodied, richly layered Champagne, showing toasted bread, orchard fruit, baking spice, and dried fruit over a chalky, mineral-driven finish that lingers. It's a fine match for roast poultry, rich seafood like scallops or lobster, or aged cheeses.