Tasting the latest releases from Laurent-Perrier

Laurent-Perrier is the fourth-largest Champagne house. It’s quoted on the French Stock Exchange, although the majority of the shares are still held by the Nonancourt family.

Indeed, it was the partnership between long-serving and soon-to-retire winemaker Michel Fauconnet and Bernard de Nonancourt which initiated some of the region’s most dynamic innovations, including the first macerated rosé Champagne, the first zero-dosage Champagne and the first multi-vintage Champagne…quite an achievement.The latest releases from Laurent-Perrier for 2019 include a new twist on zero-dosage, namely a Blanc de Blancs with its Chardonnay sourced equally from great crus in the Côte des Blancs – Avize and Cramant amongst them – but also from the Montagne de Reims, which adds an enticingly pithy element to the gustatory profile.

Laurent-Perrier releases its vintage Champagne relatively infrequently, and it’s in deference to the near-perfect conditions of the year in question that the nod has also been given for the 2008 vintage; a very good decision as it turns out. 2008 was actually cooler than 2002, the other great year of the decade, the cerebral and linear profile of its wines well suited to the house style.

Last but not least is the latest version, or ‘Iteration’, of Laurent-Perrier’s multi-vintage deluxe cuvée, Grand Siècle, originally launched in 1959 and now in its 24th manifestation.

Michel advises that LP, or anyone else for that matter, is asking the impossible from nature by aspiring to the trinity of freshness, finesse and elegance all at the same time. This can only be achieved, he advises, by marrying three different vintages – in the case of Iteration 24 these are 2004, 2006 and 2007 – and allowing them to age over a period of seven years or more.

This deluxe cuvée is sourced entirely from grand cru sites, calling upon no fewer than 11 of the 17 eponymous villages. The wine was disgorged in October 2018 with a dosage of 7g/l. As always, the Chardonnay edges the Pinot Noir at a ratio of 55:45, and as usual the wine needs time to reveal itself. Also released at the same time in magnum is Grand Siècle Iteration 22, a blend of 1999, 2002 and 2004, which is already outstanding.

Laurent-Perrier’s latest releases:

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