Very clean and bright with transparency of sliced lemon, pear and chalk. Medium to full body with a very creamy texture and a bright, vivid finish. Comes off dry. Three years on the lees. 55% chardonnay, 30% pinot noir and 15% pinot meunier. A blend of 2016-2019. 6 g/l dosage. Drink or hold.

Ayala's Brut Majeur has undergone reinvention with the 2019 base, now boasting more Chardonnay than any other NV from the major houses. The style is delicate and snappy with yellow apple, lime and sweet pear fruit, subtly backed up by a touch of creaminess. Care and precision, representing fine value. 55% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, 15% Meunier. Based on 2019 with 43% reserve wines from 2018, 2017 and 2016.

The Ayala team is bringing more transparency to this blend in terms of information provided on the labels as well as to its style. Based on the 2019 vintage, this release saw an increase to 55% Chardonnay, with 30% Pinot Noir and the rest Meunier, while the dosage was also reduced to 6 grams per liter. Pouring a pale silver straw hue, the NV Champagne Majeur Brut is fresh with a delicate perfume of lime blossom, yeasty, fresh bread dough, and green pear. Medium-bodied and lean on the palate, it offers a spritely mousse in a straightforward and crisp style to enjoy over the next few years. It takes on more balance and finesse than I remember from this wine in the past. Each of the wines are fermented separately now, and it was disgorged in January of 2023. - Audrey Frick

90+ This is the same cuvée of Brut Majeur I reported on last summer, with the wine now having had a chance to spend another year aging in bottle and really starting to blossom fully. The cépages is forty percent chardonnay, forty percent pinot noir and twenty percent pinot meunier, with the dosage of seven grams per liter. The bouquet is deep and really wide open now, jumping from the glass in a complex blend of apple, peach, warm bread, lovely soil tones, fruit blossoms and gentle smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, fullbodied and complex, with a fine core, elegant mousse, lovely balance and grip and a long, nascently complex finish. The dosage here is really nicely done, as it balances the acidity here seamlessly. A fine bottle. 2016-2030+.

A firm, linear Champagne, with a fine, lively mousse and chiseled acidity defining flavors of ripe cherry, preserved lemon, white blossoms, chalk and ground ginger. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Disgorged October 2022. Drink now. – AN