Champagne Egly Ouriet Grand Cru Extra Brut VP Vieillissment Prolonge NV

96 points Tyson Stelzer (The Champagne Guide): 2009 base vintage; disgorged May 2017; 30% chardonnay, 70% pinot from Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay; 33% 2008, 33% 2007 reserves; aged 80 months on lees; vinified and aged in oak casks; 2g/L dosage. In an age when single-vineyard, single-varietal, single-vintage champagnes are all the rage, it remains that blends triumph most often, even in an estate as tiny as this. Egly’s ‘prolonged ageing’ blend unites three vintages in equal proportions. Power meets effortless calm as three of Champagne’s finest pinot noir crus unite with breathtaking expression. The depth and complexity on display here are a grand testament to the collision of the deep 2009 season, the grandeur of Ambonnay and the exacting precision of Egly. It ripples with mirabelle plums, peaches and all the fanfare of a Parisian boulangerie. For all its complexity, it concludes with sensational tension and focus on an exacting finish of precise minerality that bores to the core of