Belle Epoque 2011, a vintage for Perrier-Jouët’s 200 years

With this vintage 2011, which has just been presented to the market, Maison Perrier-Jouët celebrated the 200th anniversary of its foundation in 1811.

In 1811, Pierre-Nicolas Perrier, the son of a family of winemakers, and Rose Adélaïde Jouët, the daughter of a family of wine merchants, decided to set up their own Champagne Maison. Two centuries of tradition, experience and passion have driven a constant quest for an ideal of elegance and style, with an incessant focus on exploring nature and its beauty in all forms.

Their legacy has reached us today not only condensed in the style of Perrier-Jouët Champagne but also thanks to the unmeasurable value of Maison Belle Epoque, the founders’ mansion. After two years of restoration, it has been transformed into a boutique hotel that was only recently opened to the public and houses one of the most prestigious private collections of Arte Nouveaux in France with over 200 original pieces. Maison Belle Epoque is a tangible combination between Champagne, art and nature that still today represents the spirit of Perrier-Jouët. Its glass doors are inlaid with wooden floral decorations by Hector Guimard, an enormous picture window captures the harmony of the garden, the wood furniture in the living room is inlaid with fern decorations by Louis Majorelle and there are works by Lalique and Rodin as well as contemporary ones like the Ephemera installation by duo Mischer Traxler and the glass work In the Shadow of Light by Japanese artist Ritsue Mishma.

The unmistakable floral design of flowering anemone plants that Arte Nouveaux artist Emile Gallé dedicated to the Epernay Maison in 1902 and which was chosen in 1969 to adorn the bottle of their cuvée de prestige Belle Epoque, created for the extraordinary 1964 harvest, epitomizes the path the Maison has followed over the past 50 years to elaborate its identity, above all working with leading international artists and designers.

Nature, art and savoir-faire are the essential elements in the quest for balance and harmony for each and every Perrier-Jouët Champagne and for over 30 years Chef de Cave Hervé Deschamps has been the keeper of the secrets behind this. The latest incarnation of “l’Art du Millésime di Perrier-Jouët” can be found in the cuvée Belle Epoque 2011. It is a Champagne true to the Maison’s style that saw Hervé Deschamps select the best grapes from each Grand Cru vineyard to make a wine to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Maison’s foundation and capture those sparks of beauty and personality that were not easy to find in this difficult harvest, when a cold and rainy summer was saved only in the last days before the grapes were picked.

It is through a Champagne like this one that one can appreciate the greatness of a Maison with over two centuries of history. Despite a harvest that was anything but memorable, their savoir-faire was able to produce this Belle Epoque 2011, in which the Chardonnay from Cramant and Avize gave the wine its delicate freshness, wrapping floral aromas and mellow freshness.

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