We enjoyed Egly Ouriet Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge 1996 during January 2015. The wine was extremely vibrant and energetic. While there was no great depth, the purity and elegance were superb. Have others experienced great bottles of Coteaux Champenois with decades of age?
I like this wine with some age. I had an early 2000s vintage a couple of years ago in Reims that was stunning.
Great to hear. We enjoyed the 2007 vintage also during 2015, and, while enjoyable, it was not nearly as stunning as the 1996.
Had an '02 Bara a few months ago that was aging very nicely. Pretty confident these can hold just as well as red Burgundy.
We had the Egly-Ouriet 2002 last week. Found it a touch oaky, but otherwise very good. It isn’t in the same camp as the '96, but it’s showing no signs of decline.
I have had a few of these that have been really, really good between 20 and 40 years old and some that were still good at 50+ years old (though past their peak). The problem IMO isn’t that they can’t age, but that most still wines from Champagne really are not all that good - especially when consdering the prices they are offered at. The best wines can be really good and are well worth aging, but there aren’t that many IMO that are all that good to begin with.
This does seem to be changing a bit as more and more producers actually try to make a quality still wine rather than just bottle off some of the juice meant to be blanc Champagne or red wine for Rose. Now that more producers are making specific harvesting and winemaking choices with the focus of making still wines, quality is rising. It should be fun to follow what the next decade brings though I still worry that the pricing may not support the quality.