This is again 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay from 40-year-old vines in Ambonnay. The wine was aged completely in barrel and there was only two grams per litre dosage. It is a seductive, layered, yet powerful expression of Ambonnay and, with the Blanc de Noirs, it represents one of the very finest wines of the Montagne de Reims Grand Cru area. On the vintage, William Kelley has written, “Recent releases from Egly have been consistently nothing short of spectacular, but even so, I was unprepared for quite how good the 2013 vintage has turned out at this address.” Enough said. 

“Francis Egly has produced another profound Champagne with the 2013 Brut Grand Cru Millésime. If the monumental 2008 stands out for its power, structure and intensity, the 2013 is distinguished by its harmony, finesse and completeness; both vintages are very great wines but thus quite different in style. Wafting from the glass with scents of Anjou pear, crisp yellow apple, freshly baked bread, clear honey, iodine and fresh mint, it’s full-bodied, ample and pillowy, with a layered, concentrated and effortlessly balanced core of fruit, uniting precision and sensuality to compelling effect. Girdled by racy acids and animated by a delicate pinpoint mousse, it concludes with a long, penetrating finish. Is this the most elegant wine Egly has produced to date? It’s certainly among the most compelling that this high quality but initially underrated Champagne vintage has delivered.”
100 points, William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Time on lees: 96 months