Drappier Grande Sendrée 2008, a great Champagne

A Champagne to drink now or keep in your cellar for future enjoyment. Grande Sendrée 2008 from Maison Drappier today is distinguished by its freshness and outstanding luminosity.

It is clear by now that Maison Drappier – imported to Italy by Partesa – has over the years lifted its ambitions in regard to Champagne production. And this not only has to do with the media attention paid to the Michel Drappier’s efforts to adopt an organic approach to the cultivating his vineyards, begun seven years ago, which has resulted in 15 hectares of them being certified Agriculture Biologique in 2014. What is going on at this Maison in Urville, a Côte des Bar village in the Aube department, is that year after year the Drappier style has distinguished itself with its preciseness and ability to please despite the fact that its vineyards are located in the lesser appreciated are of Champagne.

It is (almost) easy to make a great Champagne from a Grand Cru vineyard, while it not so easy to make a great Champagne from vineyards situated in the southern part of the region, more precisely southeast of Troyes. Thanks to the exceptional 2008 harvest and a vineyard plot with superior quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Drappier has created a new edition of its cuvée Grande Sendrée. The Champagne is named after the vineyard its grapes come from which in 1838 was covered with ash from a fire that devastated the town of Urville. Due to a clerical error at the registry office, its name was changed from Cendrée (ashen) to Sendrée.

Maison Drappier produces this vintage wine only in good years and it is bottled with a label that has a reproduction of an 18th century design found in the Urville winery, which was once a Cistercian abbey founded by Bernard di Chiaravalle in 1152 (Abbaye de Clairvaux) and for the past 210 years has been home to the Drappier family Maison.

Production today is made from the grapes from some 55 hectares of vineyards the Maison owns, plus an equal amount from outside suppliers, 70% of which is Pinot Noir and thanks to Michel Drappier it achieves a truly interesting finesse and stylistic preciseness.

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