Brut Nature

Drappier Brut Nature Champagne

The Drappier Brut Nature is a Zero Dosage Champagne bottled without the addition of any dosage, a Blanc de Noirs made from 100% Pinot Noir by the Michel Drappier estate in Urville, Champagne.

Drappier Brut Nature is a wonderfully dry Champagne that fully unfolds even after long aging; unadorned, it perfectly showcases its grape variety and terroir. Red-gold in color with copper highlights, this lively, fine-bubbled Drappier Champagne is very pure with crisp, ripe fruit; vineyard peach and red berries form a liaison. The Drappier Brut Nature Champagne plays its mineral card and reveals its limestone-rich soils. At the same time, it is enormously fresh and light-footed with incredible length.

This is what Michel Drappier says about the Brut Nature: "For lovers of pure pleasures, we have created a cuvée from 100% Pinot Noir, 100% first press (as always at Drappier), but without dosage. No liqueur is added to the wine. Only the natural unfermented sugar remains, which is less than 2g per bottle. Since only a very small amount of sulfur is used, the wine has the freedom to fully unfold. It is honest, with not very rich, but lively foam. A scent of freshly pressed black grapes. Aromas of tropical fruits and aromatic herbs." Buy Drappier Brut Nature Champagne here.

Champagne Drappier – plenty of Pinot Noir, little sulfur

The Drappier family has lived and worked in the south of the Champagne region, in the Côte des Bar, since 1808. They manage a good 100 hectares of this special terroir, which is characterized by a cool climate, limestone-rich soils interspersed with Kimmeridgian marl, and optimal slope orientations (south-southeast).

After the harvest, Champagne Drappier takes great care to produce the most elegant and aromatic wines as naturally as possible. Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes are gently pressed using mechanical low-pressure presses. Only the cuvée, the first part of the pressing, is used for the Champagne. The grape must is treated with great care to avoid oxidation and is processed further without pumps, using only gravity. The base wine is fermented with natural yeasts and aged in stainless steel tanks, with a small portion maturing for a year in French oak barrels. To add complexity to the sparkling wine, a portion of the Drappier Brut Nature comes from reserve wines of older vintages—a special technique with a significant tradition in Champagne. The cuvée has naturally undergone malolactic fermentation, meaning the malic acid in the wine has transformed into the milder lactic acid; this provides a special mouthfeel with a slightly creamy structure and further layers to the Champagne cuvée.

To carry out one of the most important steps in creating a good Champagne—the blending (cuvettage), which is the combining of different base wines for the second fermentation—three generations come together at Drappier and let their taste and lived experience flow in: grandfather André Nicolas, father Michel, as well as grandchildren Charline, who manages sales and marketing; Hugo, who now works as the cellar master at Drappier; and Antoine Drappier, who manages the vineyards again with the help of horses.

Naturally, Champagne Drappier Brut Nature undergoes the second fermentation in traditional bottle fermentation: according to the Méthode Champenoise. The Drappier Brut Nature Champagne comes to market with three years of bottle aging. This sparkling wine from France is neither filtered nor colored. And Michel Drappier is known for using only as little sulfur (less than 30mg/l) as necessary.

Brut Nature – a sparkling wine and its values

• Origin: France
• Region: Champagne
• Côte des Bar
• 100% Pinot Noir
• Disgorged September 2020
• Dosage: 0g/l
• Brut Nature
• 12% vol. alcohol