1/3 Pinot Noir, 1/3 Chardonnay, 1/3 Pinot Meunier

Food pairings: A lovely aperitif, and a fine match for charcuterie, smoked meats or smoked fish, and fresh or moderately aged French cheeses.

Winemaking: The grapes are harvested by hand when fully ripe and fermented with indigenous yeasts, entirely in stainless steel tanks, without malolactic fermentation. Each release is built on one main harvest, about half the blend, completed with reserve wines from the two previous years. The wine then ages about three years on its lees and is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a very low dosage of only 1 to 2 g/L depending on the release.

Vineyards and terroir: Les Prémices comes from Trigny, on the Massif de Saint-Thierry northwest of Reims, next to the village of Merfy. The vines are spread over seven historic lieux-dits, face southeast and average 40 years of age, rooted in sandy soils with some clay over a chalk bedrock, a terroir quite different from the family's grand cru Pinot Noir country in Ambonnay. The plots come from Annick Egly's side of the family; their grapes were once sold off, until the return of the next generation allowed the family to make the wine themselves.

Family and history: Egly-Ouriet, established in 1930, is a small family grower in the grand cru village of Ambonnay, renowned for powerful, vinous, Pinot Noir-driven Champagnes. Francis Egly, the fourth generation, took over from his father Michel and built the estate's reputation on ripe, hand-harvested grapes, long lees aging and very low dosages. His children Charles and Clémence have since joined him, and Les Prémices, first made from the 2016 harvest, was created as a new, more accessible door into the range. The name means "a beginning": in Latin, primitiae were the first fruits of the harvest, set aside as an offering to the gods.

In the pictures: Summer vineyards in Ambonnay, the Egly family's home village on the Montagne de Reims (photo: ADT Marne, 2012, CC BY-SA 4.0).