Drappier Grande Sendree

A sweeping pale yellow robe with nuances of topaz. Time has used its patina to reveal the complexity of wine. The bouquet shows aromas of hawthorn combines with honey of acacia, beeswax and marzipan. When it is airy, it picks up murmurs, the quince jam meets the raspberry jam and alternates with bergamot and warm brioche. The palate is invigorating, imposing and brings vibrancy to the taste buds. The bead caresses and bring balance, wild strawberry jelly with ripe orange. This harmony extends into a delicate minerality and a charming bitterness in which the tangerine notes linger on the complex finish.

Drappier is based in the village of Urville to the east of the district and arriving in the silent village the first time, it’s hard to imagine such a significant producer’s HQ is here. François Drappier founded the house in 1808, descended from a Reims family of cloth merchants and lawyers and settled in Urville. The site in Urville is built over cellars constructed by the monks of nearby Clairvaux Abbey, although given their modest size and shallow depth (too warm) and the fact marl does not create the stone cold humidity of pure chalk, Drappier’s main cellars are in Reims, at 11 rue Goïot. In the 1930s the house grubbed up the traditional Aube Gamay and became pioneers of Pinot Noir. Drappier has been an important innovator in the Champagne making process ever since. The house is associated with Charles de Gaulle whose private residence was in nearby Colombey-les-Deux-Églises from the mid 1930′s and who retired and died there in 1970. De Gaulle declared Drappier his favourite Champagne and the house makes a vintage special cuvée Champagne Charles de Gaulle. Nowadays the house owns some 55ha outright, rents 50ha more and buys in some 30% of the grapes it uses. Two hundred years of climatic and economic hazards have not diminished the passion which animates a Champagne family with its roots in this soil worked a thousand times over.