The Maison
Our savoir-faire
Innovator in champagne
Our 3 savoir-faire
THE LAURENT-PERRIER STYLE
Bernard de Nonancourt created the Laurent-Perrier style: freshness, elegance, purity. To achieve this, he used the traditional practices of Champagne, but also initiated and stimulated new technical approaches to winemaking. The result is a range of unique wines, each with its own history and style. Laurent-Perrier is renowned for its taste and the consistency of its quality, Cuvée after Cuvée.
Vinification
At the end of the 1970s, Laurent-Perrier was one of the few Champagne Houses to choose stainless steel vats. By controlling the first fermentation at a low temperature, they allow the wine to retain its freshness and preserve the complexity of its aromas. They also contribute to the development of the House style: freshness, elegance and purity. Bernard de Nonancourt showed his ambition for Laurent-Perrier by having the first temperature-controlled vat room built.
Alain Terrier, Cellar Master from 1983 to 2004, perfected the art of blending, faithful to the quest for excellence that nourishes the Laurent-Perrier spirit. He selects grapes from the best areas of the Champagne vineyards, vinifies each batch separately and supervises the blends with the utmost care. This plot-by-plot vinification has become a signature of the House: each vineyard is worked separately, offering the Cellar Master who makes the blends a very wide range of aromas, terroirs and styles.
Assemblage
At Laurent-Perrier, winemaking means selecting the best juice from the press, working with the three main Champagne varietals, Chardonnay mostly, Pinot Noir and Meunier, which is used solely in making “La Cuvée” and Harmony. It also means choosing the still wines that will go to make up the final composition from the 319 villages in the Champagne AOC area including 17 Grands Crus and 42 Premiers Crus. To make wine is to achieve the perfect balance between a base year and reserve wines to recreate the characteristic Laurent-Perrier style each year. Finally, it means ageing our Cuvées for long periods so that they are perfectly ready to enjoy as soon as they are released onto the market. Each of these stages, however important, can only be accomplished if we have the best grapes, which is why our long-standing partnerships with the region’s growers and cooperatives, often over several generations, are vital.
