Champagne Drappier – sparkling luxury
Champagne Drappier is a family-run Champagne house in France with a long tradition. The family has lived in Urville, a small village in the Côte de Bar region of Champagne, since 1808. Cloth merchant Rémy Drappier from Reims was the first to bring sparkling luxury to the Drappier household, purchasing 55 hectares of vineyards in prime locations such as Belle Haie, Val Demoiselle, and Sendrée, as well as historic limestone cellars—the oldest of which was built in 1152—and subsequently dedicated himself with great passion to the production of sparkling wine.
Today, the eighth generation of the Drappier family manages a good 100 hectares of vineyards in the south of the Champagne region, which consist predominantly of chalky soils interspersed with Kimmeridgian marl. This unique soil formation within the Paris Basin has been primarily planted with Pinot Noir, the grape variety that gives Drappier’s Carte d’Or Champagne—the house's flagship wine with its distinctive yellow label—its fine minerality and copper-toned appearance. The favorite Champagne of Charles de Gaulle, which served as the house Champagne at the Élysée Palace during his term, is popular not only in France; Luciano Pavarotti served this sparkling wine at his wedding.
Champagne Drappier – winemakers for eight generations
Entrepreneurial decisions made by the Drappier family have often set the course for the entire region. For instance, in 1957, following a great frost, Michel’s grandfather, George Collot, planted Pinot Noir instead of Chardonnay, for which he was ridiculed and nicknamed "Papa Pinot." Today, three-quarters of the Côte de Bar region is planted with Pinot Noir.
Michel Drappier, who has led Champagne Drappier since 1979, committed early on to a natural approach to Champagne production and a significant reduction in the addition of sulfur, thereby prompting a rethink among many Champagne winemakers. The Champagnes produced in this way have more natural colors, a rich and sometimes almost coppery gold, and develop their aromas significantly better than those with higher sulfur additions. Furthermore, the low sulfur level allows for an exceptionally slow bottle fermentation at low temperatures in the historic limestone cellars, which leads to the formation of extremely fine and subtle bubbles. For the Drappier Brut Nature, Michel foregoes the addition of a dosage, allowing for an unadorned, terroir-driven, bone-dry Champagne that enjoys great popularity among Champagne connoisseurs.
Although the majority of the vineyard area is planted with classic Champagne grape varieties such as Pinot Noir (70%), Chardonnay, and Meunier, Michel places great value on providing space for almost forgotten, yet permitted, grape varieties such as Arbane, Petit Meslier, and Blanc Vrai, and used them, along with Chardonnay, to create the Quattuor Champagne.
Even though we only source large-format bottles beyond a magnum for customers upon request, this unique feature of the Champagne Drappier house is certainly worth mentioning, as Drappier remains the only Champagne producer to carry out the second fermentation—including riddling and disgorging—within the individual large-format bottles, rather than transferring finished Champagne from multiple bottles into a Magnum (1.5l), Jeroboam (3l), or Balthazar (12l) as is standard practice. Anyone who has had the pleasure of enjoying a glass of aged Champagne from a Melchisédec (30l) bottle knows why. Champagne Drappier is sparkling pleasure for the special moments in life.
