Egly-Ouriet Brut "Les Vignes de Vrigny"
Sam is hosting WBW #25 and the theme is Lovely Jubbly Bubbly. Here is my entry, a non bling, reasonably priced, small grower Champagne:
As you drink your next glass of Champagne think of this - Between 1960 and 1998 there was a policy whereby Parisian rubbish (gadoux) was spread over vineyards in Champagne. If this thought disturbs you then you will be pleased to know that the Egly family and a few other growers resisted this trend, their southeast-facing, chalky hillside is rubbish free. Andrew Jefford in his book The New France refers to Egly-Ouriet as a "very serious and well run domain."
Another helpful point of difference is the inclusion on each bottle of a back label which mentions time on lees and also the date the wine was disgorged. All Egly-Ouriet are unfiltered and recieve 3-4 years aging prior to release. This release of "Les Vignes de Vrigny" is 100% Pinot Meunier (Champagne's third grape, and Pinot noir's mutant 'brother') and although not stated on the bottle this wine is actually a 2000 vintage wine.
Tasting note:
Straw coloured, clear and bright. The bead is fine, delicate and persistant. The nose is pure and inviting - bruised green apple and the faint scent of bakers yeast. Crisp, tight, long and dry. There is a lovely satisfying creaminess in the mouth before a lingering slightly bitter twist which demands that you have another sip.
Excellent.
18/20 (94/100)
Approx $A65. Well worth it (if you can find it.)
technorati tags: wine, french wine, champagne
6 comments:
Tell us more about this tradition of garbage spreading. I am disturbed yet very curious and my lazy google search turned up little. Nice blog too! Couldn't agree more with you about Egly either. We just got them into the shop where I work and they are rather impressive.
Cheers
Matt
Matt,
What I know about the garbage is from Jefford's book.
As with all things it must have seemed like a good idea at the time and initially it was mainly vegetable scraps from Paris, but over the years the waste become more toxic - plastics and metal.
thanks for the heads up on the extra entries, I am dashing out of the door right now, now late for an engagement so wont be able to update until tomorrow.
I didn't receive an email from either you or Cam, so in the meantime please could you please each send an email with the details as specified in the announcement post, which will just help make my organisational job a little bit easier.
thanks very much, and thanks for being one of the bubbles in my champagne!
Sam
Thanks Sam,
Will send the email again.
Ed
Hi - I was very confused about this and just found that both you and cam ended up in the spam folder! I had no idea that gmail put real people in the spam folder. I am now worried I might be getting many emails in my regular gmail account that I never get to see, too.
Apologies to both of you.
I am going to edit you both in now...
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