First taste: Bruno Paillard new releases

Champagne Bruno Paillard is one of the region’s most distinctive small houses, founded in 1981 by a personality who has remained at the very top of Champagne’s machinery over the last 30 years, and is one of the region’s most prominent statesmen.

Bruno Paillard has been closely involved with protecting Champagne’s name around the world, not only as former communications director for the Comité Champagne (the region’s governing body), but also as chairman of Lanson-BCC (a group which includes not only Champagne Lanson but also a number of other prominent houses such as Philipponnat and De Venoge).

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for two new Bruno Paillard releases

If the story began in 1981 with Paillard selling his vintage Jaguar for 50,000 francs to found the house, then 2018 marks an equally significant year: the first year when Paillard’s daughter Alice, who returned to the estate in 2007, took full control at the blending table. Such handovers in Champagne are often marked by a new cuvée. Among the many temptations in the cellar, it was the idea of a multi-vintage blanc de noirs, sourced only from grand cru villages, that won through.

‘There are already beautiful blanc de noirs in Champagne, sometimes on the opulent or vinous side,’ says Alice Paillard. ‘Often we know them from the southern side of the Montagne de Reims, but this was not the idea for this blanc de noirs…the idea was to put forward the northern terroirs,’ she says.

The effect, Paillard believes, is to offer a surprisingly fresh take on Pinot Noir, offering citrussy aromas that ‘might not be the first aromas you would expect from blanc de noirs,’ she says.

The villages of Verzy, Verzenay and Mailly make up two thirds of the wine, while the final third is from the south-facing grand cru of Bouzy. The first release, based on 2018, contains just 12.5% reserve wine, although this will double with the 2019 base and will increase a little from there onwards.

This is a cuvée that hints at a slightly cooler, quieter aesthetic than is sometimes found at a property perhaps best known for open, demonstrative wines.

The new Nec Plus Ultra (NPU) Rosé 2008, however, served as a reminder that the house’s heart still beats at the dining table, the wine matching strides with dishes that might not come immediately to mind for many Champagnes, such as venison.

Made by adding a small amount of red wine to the house’s existing white prestige cuvée Nec Plus Ultra 2008, it is a wine of startling density and complexity from a vintage whose innate tension and freshness complements the style.

The Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Extra Brut retails in the UK for £66, and the Nec Plus Ultra Rosé 2008 will retail for £320.

Tasting notes and scores for the new Bruno Paillard releases

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