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By: John Christensen | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/28/2023 | Send Email
Egrot's Extra Brut is undoubtedly one of the finest values from Champagne. With top Champagne production in her bones, Elisabeth Goutorbe has delivered us a beautiful Extra Brut, full of verve and finesse. Based on 75% Pinot Noir, the fruit character is perfectly ripe giving off similar notes of a fine Red Burgundy. Surely Extra Brut in style, but with only a 2g/l dosage one would expect this to be an extreme version of Extra Brut, however the ripeness achieved on the vine allows this to be beautifully balanced. All-around, a wonderful Champagne!
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By: Philip Roufail | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/17/2023 | Send Email
Loaded with ripe Pinot Noir and a rich splash of Chardonnay from the chalky Grand and Premier Cru vineyards around the village of Aÿ, the Egrot Extra Brut Champagne really shows the pedigree of its terroir. To give you an idea about the neighborhood, renown Champagne house Bollinger and its baby, Ayala, make Aÿ their home. On the nose, red fruit aromas of Bing cherry, raspberry, and light toast. On the palate, the low dosage is balanced by ripe apple, stone fruit, zippy acidity, with a lush slightly tart finish. The Extra Brut completes a line of Egrot champagnes that are all easy drinking sparklers that are a tasty addition to any day or celebration.
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By: Jeffrey Jones | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/12/2023 | Send Email
The Champagnes from Egrot always seem to be elegant and have a lot of finesse. This extra brut continues this tradition. The nose is inviting and delicate. In the mouth, there is a wonderful balance between the acidity and fruit flavors. It dry but not austere, and is lively and refreshing.
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By: Alex Schroeder | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/7/2023 | Send Email
One of the best sub-$50 bottles of Champagne in the store. I can’t think of a better oyster accompaniment than this Aÿ Pinot-dominant extra brut from Elisabeth and Jean-Marie Egrot. It has elegant flavors of citrus, gala apples, and white nectarine with a touch of smoke and toast from the long lees aging. It has a nice lightness on the palate while retaining complexity and elegance only extending aging can bring.
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By: Neal Fischer | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/23/2022 | Send Email
I'm such a fan of this wine. My favorite aspect is the way that the citrus meets the vanilla notes head-on in a fantastic synthesis of flavors. There's biting lemon and pithiness, but these flavors go hand-in-hand with just-cut vanilla bean and deeper toffee notes. The palate is a little fresher with zippy acid, yummy pear notes, bright lemon, and a little cream. Vanilla peeks around the edges of the finish in a playful way so you don't forget it. It always stays fresh and crisp, so it's perfect for all manner of seafood dishes, particularly oysters and sushi.
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By: Giovanni Bueno | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/5/2022 | Send Email
What's not to love about extra brut Champagne? Imagine a wine maker who knows that they have delicious fruit and they take that fruit and make a delicious wine, and then they have such confidence with that wine that they bottle it with just a whisper of lifting dosage. Egrot's Extra Brut has a beautiful minerality to it, and a hint of salinity as if it was plucked from the sea. The finish is brisk and almost stern, but more like the love of a Grandmother who knows what's best for you. Bruised cherry, fatty Marcona almonds and a doughy savory character speak to the mastery of lees contact that Elisabeth Goutourbe likely has written into her DNA.
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By: Gary Westby | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 7/13/2021 | Send Email
The Egrot Extra Brut is made for Champagne lovers who are looking for something extra crisp as an aperitif or to pair with oysters or other shellfish. This Champagne is composed of two-thirds Pinot Noir and one-third Chardonnay, entirely from the 2010 harvest. It is dosed at just 2 grams per liter, but with over six years of aging on the lees, it does not come across as overly austere. It actually shows more creamy notes on the nose than the brut, perhaps because of the addition of softer wines from Mutigny from the sunny 2010 harvest. The cherry fruit has a slight hint of exoticism, but it snaps back into laser focus on the finish, which is as dry as Champagne can be without having a mean spirit. I love this with the Kumamoto oysters that we get from Hog Island Oyster Co. up in Tomales Bay this time of year—this Extra Brut richens up with the shellfish, and gets me shucking the next one!
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By: Shaun Green | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 11/24/2019 | Send Email
I loved the Champagnes as E. Goutorbe and still love them as Egrot! 2/3 Pinot Noir and 1/3 Chard. Extra Brut throws a lot of us off, but it really is just the dry end of Brut. The wine itself has nice angularity and crispness in a very dry style. The grams/liter really only can be understood in relation to the acidity and fruit ripeness - this bottling has a wonderful balance here and just begs for a plate of oysters
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By: William Beare | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/8/2019 | Send Email
This is another producer whose pedigree for grape growing goes far beyond their own label. Egrot sells most of what they grow to larger producers, keeping a small amount for their own production. As is often the case in situations such as these (think Alexander Le Brun), the resulting wines are smashing values with true wine-making mastery behind them. The extra-brut is an excellent food-champagne. Dosed at two grams of sugar per liter, it is an honest-to-god extra brut-- no sweetness whatsoever, but a toasty richness from patient contact with the lees that rounds out the racey qualities. Loads of minerality. Begging for shellfish!
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By: Rachel Alcarraz | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/5/2019 | Send Email
While this wine is wonderfully lean and dry, my first thought on the aromas was cinnamon toast. This is the result of the extended lees aging. Although it is noted the wine is aged for three years on the lees (already double the minimum) it is normally much more (sometimes as much as 8 years!). The lower sugar level on the dosage allows for the fruit to show its pure cherry beauty while the lovely textured and concentrated toasted qualities add depth before reaching the long balanced finish.
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By: Chris DePaoli | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 2/5/2019 | Send Email
It's made to be crisp and clean, it should be crisp and clean, and it is crisp and clean, but it also is so much more than that. People ask about dosage all the time as a tell-all reference for sweetness and warmth of champagne, but even with the low dosage of 2 grams per liter, this extra brut has a nice evenness right up to the finish ,which is really where the austerity lies if anywhere. Oysters are the obvious choice here, but most seafood, particularly served cold, would work here. I'm looking forward to this and fish tacos, or even cerviche, if you try it first let me know how it is!
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