Egly-Ouriet - Brut Grand Cru Millesime V.V - 2008

Bottling: 2009 Disgorgement: April 2020 Time on lees: 129 months 100 points, robertparker.com This wine is the second bottling of Egly’s (already legendary) Millésime 2008. This disgorgement was almost a year later, in April 2020, after 129 months on lees. Again, this is the typical blend of 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay from the same 40-year-old vines in Ambonnay, aged in barrel until bottling and with no malo (simply because it did not occur). The dosage is 4g/l. Francis Egly has called 2008, “Probably the greatest vintage of the decade,” noting that, “the wine has benefited from additional aging in our cellars after its disgorgement and has surely reached today its best level.” “Revisited from the July 2019 disgorgement, Egly’s 2008 Brut Grand Cru Millésime was showing as brilliantly as ever. The wine seemed to shut down a little in early 2020, but it is already beginning to unwind, and this was the most expressive bottle that I’ve drunk to date. Offering up an incipiently complex bouquet of orchard fruit, citrus oil, pralines and freshly baked bread, now complemented by hints of iodine, clear honey and mirabelle plum, it’s full-bodied, deep and layered, with immense depth and concentration, racy acids and elegantly muscular structuring dry extract. Long and penetrating, as I’ve written before, this wine is a monument to what Champagne’s grower revolution has achieved over the last 30 or so years.” 100 Points William Kelley, The Wine Advocate