Egly-Ouriet
AMBONNAY
Roses de Jeanne
CELLES-SUR-OURCE
Ulysse Collin
CONGY
Chartogne-Taillet
MERFY
Egly-Ouriet
AMBONNAY
Egly-Ouriet is one of the reference-point growers in Champagne, with a stunning selection of wines that offer remarkable transparency of site, vintage and variety. Owner and winemaker Francis Egly took over from his father in 1982, after which he immediately converted the domaine to 100% estate bottling, and in the process became one the original pioneers in the grower Champagne movement.
The family grand cru vineyards are mainly located in the villages of Ambonnay, Verzenay and Bouzy and are planted to 70 percent Pinot Noir and 30 percent Chardonnay with vines that are on average 50 years old. Ambonnay, where the winery is based, is also home of the legendary grand cru vineyard of Les Crayères planted with 70-year-old Pinot Noir vines that Francis Egly has vinified separately since 1990. The grower also own premier cru vineyards in the village of Vrigny planted with Pinot Meunier. More recently, he has been working with grapes from old Chardonnay vines (planted in 1902) in Verzy and a small sandy vineyard in Trigny (near Merfy) planted with 40-year-old Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay vines.
Francis Egly works meticulously; in the vineyards he uses organic and biodynamic practices. Yields are dramatically controlled, and regular ploughing is employed. Grapes are harvested by hand when perfectly ripe, and pressed full cluster in the newest released Coquard press. The juice is fermented with indigenous yeasts, in French oak barrels, purchased from Burgundian Dominique Laurent. Malolactic fermentation is allowed or blocked depending on the needs of the vintage and all wines are aged extensively on lees. Dosage is very low with seldom more than 3 grams per liter. All wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Egly-Ouriet wines stand at the summit of intense, complex, and texturally precise Champagnes. When talking about their wines it’s hard not to mention their Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge. Made with grapes from a single vineyard directly below Les Crayères in Ambonnay this cuvee has become one of the must-find rare Pinot Noirs from France!
“No winemaker in Champagne is more precise or meticulous, from vineyard to cellar.”
William Kelley - Wine Advocate
🍀 ORGANIC / 🌙 BIODYNAMIC
17 ha
THE WINES
NV CHAMPAGNES
Brut Grand Cru
Grand Cru V.P Extra Brut
Grand Cru Brut Rose
1er Cru Les Vignes de Vrigny
VINTAGE CHAMPAGNE
Grand Cru Millésimé
Roses de Jeanne
CELLES-SUR-OURCES
Cédric Bouchard has been making wine on his own since 2000 on his newly created Roses de Jeanne estate.
Cédric doesn’t use any wood for his champagnes, preferring to ferment all of his wines in stainless or enamel-lined steel, since as a purist he thinks that the wood would ultimately add something that was not supposed to be there. The wines are made from hand-harvested fruit, crushed by foot and only the finest juice is retained (the rest of the less qualitative production being sold to the négoce). All of his wines are fermented with natural yeasts and see neither chaptalisation or dosage. The wines will go through malolactic fermentation and be racked only once prior to bottling.
Each wine comes from tiny parcels around Celles-Sur-Ources, the village where Cédric bouchard vinifies his wines.
He has also a very rare parcel of old Pinot Blanc vines called ‘La Bolorée’ with a very uncommon chalky soil for Celles-Sur-Ources and from which he makes an outstanding Cuvée, of which less than 1000 bottles are released per year. The smallest plot of the estate, however, is the Creux d'Enfer with only 4 little rows of vines making around 500 bottles a year. In 2014 he started to release a cuvee from ‘La Presle’, a small parcel in which he planted 10 different Pinot Noir rootstocks.
1.37 ha
THE WINES
Côte de Val Vilaine, Brut, Blanc de Noirs -Pinot Noir
Côte de Béchalin, Brut, Blanc de Noirs -Pinot Noir
La Presle, Brut, Blanc de Noirs -Pinot Noir
Les Ursules, Brut, Blanc de Noirs - Pinot Noir
La Haute Lemblé, Brut, Blanc de Blancs -Chardonnay
La Bolorée, Brut, Blanc de Blancs -Pinot Blanc
Le Creux d’Enfer, Brut, Rosé de Saignée -Pinot Noir
Ulysse Collin
CONGY
Olivier Collin’s Champagne is in the village of Congy in the Coteaux du Morin, south-west of the Côte des Blancs. Collin gives credit to Anselme Selosse for inspiring him to become a vigneron after having studied law.
Olivier Collin owns vines in a 1.2-hectare parcel in a vineyard called Les Pierrières, in the nearby village of Vert La Gravelle, the vines here are 40 years old. In addition, he has some other Chardonnay parcels in Barbonne-Fayeland Congy, as well as parcels of Pinot Noir.
Collin farms his vines organically and winemaking here is as natural and non-interventionist as possible. Fermentation is carried out with indigenous yeasts. Both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation are carried out in three- to six-years old barrels. The wine is not fined or filtered.
8.7 ha
THE WINES
Les Roises, Extra-Brut, Blanc de Blancs
Les Pierrières, Extra-Brut, Blanc de Blancs
Les Maillons, Extra-Brut, Blanc de Noirs
Les Maillons, Extra-Brut, Rosé de Saignée
Les Enfers, Extra-Brut, Blanc de Blancs
Chartogne-Taillet
MERFY
Champagne Chartogne-Taillet was born of the union of Marie Chartogne and Etienne Taillet, both successors of two old Champagne grower families. In 1978, Philippe Chartogne took over the family vineyards, trained in Beaune he had learned the respect for the terroir and began the renewal of the estate putting an emphasis on each parcel’s distinct characteristics. Alexandre Chartogne, who worked alongside Anselme Selosse, is following in his father’s footsteps, further fine-tuning this approach. The estate counts thirteen individual vineyard parcels totalling 11 hectares in Merfy.
Alexandre put into practice Selosse’s ideas both in the cellar and in his vineyards of Merfy. The viticulture is centred on preserving the singularity of each terroir, the particular soil of Merfy (a combination of sand, clay and chalk) implies a lot of work in order to fully extract the minerality it carries.
Each parcel is vinified individually: some in stainless steel and a growing number in neutral barrels as well concrete eggs. The dosage levels have recently been decreasing here in response to riper fruit, resulting in a more vibrant balance and intensity.
🍀 ORGANIC
11 ha
THE WINES
NV CHAMPAGNES
Cuvée Sainte-Anne, Brut, NV -Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier
VINTAGE CHAMPAGNES
Brut -Pinot Noir (60%), Chardonnay (40%)
Brut rosé –Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (15 to 20% red wine)
Brut, blanc de blancs -Chardonnay (100%)
Heurtebise, Extra-Brut, blanc de blancs -Chardonnay (100%)
Les Alliées, Extra-Brut -Pinot Meunier (100%)
Les Barres, Extra-Brut - Pinot Meunier (100%)
Les Barres, Etra-Brut - Pinot Noir (100%)
Orizeaux, Extra-Brut - Pinot Noir (100%)
Les Couarres, Extra-Brut -Pinot Noir (60%), Chardonnay (40%)
Cuvée Fiacre, Brut -Chardonnay (60%), Pinot Noir (40%)
