Drappier is a Champagne maker and a family-owned Champagne house founded in 1808 and located in Urville in the Aube département of Southern Champagne region, France.
The Drappier House in Urville is a 12th century residence that was then occupied by monks. Drappier Champagnes are made at the winery in Urville, but the house also ages its vintage cuvées in underground cellars it has owned in Reims since 1991.
The estate vineyards count with 53 hectares (131 acres) owned by Drappier and and additional 50 ha (124 acres) cropped under contracts with local growers.
70% of the estate’s vineyard are made up by Pinot Noir, the dominant and signature grape variety of Drappier Champagnes. Although the house also sources grapes of classic Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, as well as ancient Champagne grapes of Petit Meslier, Blanc Vrai, and Arbane.
Since 1979, Michel Drappier is the winemaker here helped by his father André who counts with 65+ harvest seasons under his belt!
Sylvie and Michel Drappier’s children, Charline (born 1989), Hugo (1991), and Antoine (1996) are the 8th generation of the family on the estate.
Drappier Champagnes are renown for their precision, as well as for the following five characteristics, signature of the house:
- Most of Drappier’s production are Pinot Noir-dominant Champagnes
- The house emphasizes on using as little sulfites (SO2) as possible
- Minimal dosage (added sugar at bottling) to respect the crispness and the natural flavor expression for the fruit. Drappier is a specialist of Brut Nature Champagnes.
- Majority of grapes grown the limestone terroir of the Côte des Bar
- Drappier is famous for making a variety of large-format bottlings (Balthazar, Methuselah, Nebuchadnezzar). Unusually, Drappier referments the wines inside these large bottles (for the prise de mousse) while most other Champagne makers transfer small formats (magnums or bottles) into the big bottles.
Fun fact: Drappiers’ largest bottle format is the Melchisédech, a huge 30-Liter bottle.
The Champagne cuvées by Drappier include:
- Carte d’Or (see wine review below)
- Blanc de Blancs Signature
- Brut Nature
- Champagne Drappier Rosé
- Brut Nature Rosé (see wine review below)
- Brut Nature Sans Soufre (sulfite-free)
- Charles de Gaulle
- Grande Sendrée Prestige Cuvée White
- Grande Sendrée Prestige Cuvée Rosé
- Millésime Exception
- Quattuor Blanc de Quatre Blancs
Watch the Wine Reviews of Drappier Champagnes in Video
Reviews of Drappier Champagnes
Drappier Carte d’Or Non-Vintage Champagne
Score: 90+/100 points
Drappier Carte d’Or Non-Vintage (NV) Champagne retails at a price around $50 in the US, £31 in the UK, or €28 in Europe.
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
A non-vintage cuvée made from 80+% Pinot Noir from the Aube department of Champagne with a minimal use of sulfites during winemaking, and 5% of the wines matured in barrels for 1 year to enrich the cuvée. Dosage (added sugar at disgorgement) is at a moderate 7 grams/liter.
A non-vintage cuvee with a rather intense lemon-yellow color for the style, a bright lemon-yellow with shiny gold hues. The nose is open, fruity and expressive, featuring intense notes of grapefruit and lemon, with touches of hazelnut and brioche. A super soft and silky texture on a round body, yet with crisp acidity shining through and maintaining a great tension and freshness, offers am upfront fruity yet deep and interesting experience. Long and rather layered finish full of sweet spices, caramel, and honey make for an utterly satisfying tasting experience, combining the smoothness of fine bubbles and coating body with the crisp acidity we love and expect from a fine Champagne.
A fantastic Non-vintage cuvée for the $50 retail price, providing the simple pleasing sensation of a soft and fruity Champagne, together with the depth and complexity demanding Champagne connoisseurs will expect.
Drappier Carte d’Or Back Label Image
Champagne Drappier Rosé Nature Pinot Noir Zéro-Dosage
Score: 90/100 points
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
A Rosé non-vintage Champagne made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes using the saignée technique (bleeding) with no added sugar at dosage.
Rosé Nature boasts a delicate salmon pink color giving the wine an elegant appearance. The aromatic profile is subtle too, elegant and precise featuring fresh and vibrant notes of strawberry and pomegranate. Smelling it is like sniffing into a basket of fresh strawberries. Some notes of brioche and caramelized cookies.
After smelling such an upfront fruity nose, the palate surprises by it savoriness and its bone-dry character. Crisp and mineral acidity comes with delicate bitterness, like biting into a fresh blueberry. An explosion of fresh berry flavors, with the sour and acidic vibrancy that comes with it too.
A rosé to pair with food and for those who love bone-dry acidity, and precise fresh berry fruit flavors.
Drappier Rosé Nature Back Label Image
2008 Champagne Drappier Grande Sendrée Brut
Score: 92/100 points
The Grande Sendrée Cuvée takes its name from a parcel of land covered by cinders after the fire which ravaged Urville in 1838. A spelling error having slipped through in a new version of the land register (from Grande Cendrée), it is with an “s” that this cuvée is designated today. A reproduction of an 18th century bottle found in the Urville cellars is used and the Grande Sendrée undergoes remuage entirely by hand. Since the 1999 vintage it is also available as a Magnum.
Blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Grande Sendrée single vineyard. 35% of the wines are matured in oak barrels for 9 months, before the cuvée is aged for 7 years sur lattes (in the bottle on lees). Dosage (added sugar during bottling) is at a relatively low 5 grams/liter.
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
With a shiny and bright lemon-yellow color, it is vibrant and light for a ten-year-old Champagne, no obvious golden hues.
The nose is dominated by intense floral wax aromas, beeswax and turpentine. The floral element is marked and amplified by notes of lily and elderflower, while sweet spices and roasted nuts provide depth to the aromatic profile.
The palate is the revelation of the Grande Sendrée, the opulence, the body, the coating texture of Pinot Noir, combined with the crisp acidic tension from Chardonnay grown on a limestone terroir.
Joyful aromas of citrus and waxy hazelnut, sweet spices and nutmeg, come with delicate notes of fresh pear and green, grapefruit and lime. A dry and focused texture with subtle silky phenolics developing towards a long and layered finish including distinctive savory notes of wood ashes.
A Champagne wine for connoisseurs with a hearty personality, focus and tension from a solid acidity, packed full of concentrated and layered flavors.
Champagne Drappier Grande Sendrée Collerette
The Drappier Champagne House’s Signature Style
Drappier Champagnes are fascinating because they are dry and they are savory, all about the expression of the fruit character, the winemaking, the ageing, and the terroir. While tasting, your mind is not bothered by the added sugar, and the low sulfites in the wines respect the integrity of the grape original flavors.
Drappier wines are precise, generally bone-dry and relatively savory, but packed-full of layered and interesting, balanced flavor combinations.
They are Champagne wines for connoisseurs and those who like to dig deeper into fine Champagne and subtle flavor associations. This is particularly true and illustrated by the Rosé Nature and the Grande Sendrée tasted here.
As a non-vintage cuvée, the Carte d’Or benefits from a slightly higher dosage which will allow it to please lesser-discerning palates, still encompassing the purity of fruit of the house’s style. A great buy with a large spectrum of balanced flavors, and everything you expect from a very good NV Champagne. If you can find it at around $50-$60, this is a great buy and a true positive alternative to mass-produced top brands (e.g. Moet & Chandon Imperial Brut which I do like and appreciate the qualities, see article link, but Carte d’Or is just as good if not better).
Enjoy 🙂
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