First taste: Ayala Brut No 7, 2007

To celebrate its 160th anniversary Ayala has released a second vintage of its prestige ‘Collection’ series.

Somewhat illogically, after the debut of Collection No 8 Rosé, based on 2008, we are now invited to step back a year for the Collection No 7 Brut, based, you guessed it, on the 2007 vintage.

Scroll down to see Simon Field’s Ayala No 7 2007 tasting note and score

What is more, the wine is made up entirely of grapes sourced from seven grand cru sites: two-thirds Côtes des Blancs Chardonnay from the top-rated villages of Chouilly, Oger, Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and one-third Pinot Noir from similar star names in the Montagne de Reims, namely Verzy and Aÿ itself, where Ayala is based. 

Caroline Latrive, one of the new generation of female chefs de cave in Champagne’s top houses, arrived at Ayala in 2007 (but of course!) and has stated that it is, above all else, her passion for Chardonnay which she hopes will chalk out her reputation and thereby increase that of Ayala, long seen as the elegant but significantly younger sister to La Maison Bollinger, which purchased Ayala in 2005.

Despite being near neighbours in Aÿ, the styles of the two houses are conspicuously different, Ayala, as we have seen, majoring on Chardonnay, with elegance and supple flavours to the fore, oak eschewed and finesse the watchword. 

Such elegance reflects what Ayala has always been about.

Back in the middle of the 19th century the house was one of the great names in Champagne. Indeed when Fernand de Ayala, younger brother of the founder Edmond, settled in London in 1863 and presented the wine to the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, he was introducing to the English market a style with significantly less sugar than was the norm; something like 22g/l in an age when 160 g/l was the average; the drier ‘goüt anglais’ as it become known thereafter, can be directly attributed to this intervention. 

Caroline is keen to maintain the theme, and this wine has a dosage of 7g/L, just a tad above the Extra Brut ceiling.

The wine was disgorged in July 2019, after 11 years of tirage on cork (rather than crown cap) which has bequeathed a subtle and distinguished cuvée, with freshness and poise at its stylistic epicentre – this despite the fact that the base wine underwent a full malolactic fermentation and the fact that 2007 was a somewhat humid and often complicated vintage.

All agreed, however, that Chardonnay fared best in 2007 and all can agree that it fares very well indeed in Ayala No 7.

See Simon Field’s Ayala No 7 2007 tasting note and score

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