It was this country’s most celebrated Champagne fan, Sir Winston Churchill, who once declared that ‘to improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often’ – words that could be used to describe the process of steady, iterative improvement that motivates the new cellar master at Laurent-Perrier, Olivier Vigneron.
Champagne born and bred, from a farming family in the Marne region, the aptly named Vigneron studied at the University of Reims, graduating at the top of his class in 1997, and has spent almost all his professional career in the region but for a short spell at the Despagne vineyard in Bordeaux, in his early twenties. In 2000, Alain Terrier, then cellar master at Laurent-Perrier, hired him as assistant at De Castellane, a sister house in Epernay. Four years later, in 2004, he joined Laurent-Perrier under the leadership of the visionary Michel Fauconnet, whom he now succeeds after 20 years as his loyal lieutenant.
Vigneron is in fact the third man to be named as Fauconnet’s successor – after Dominique Demarville and then Maximilien Bernardeau – in a contest akin to a Papal conclave. This time, however, the baton has been passed to an internal candidate, suggesting quiet continuity has been a key consideration, alongside the obligatory reverence for Bernard de Nonancourt, the pioneering patriarch of the house and French Resistance hero, who died in 2010.
‘Bernard had a visionary approach, so it is very interesting to follow what he created, always wanting to improve… we have done it with Blanc de Blancs and Brut Nature, seeking to innovate but always to follow our values,’ he tells us at a recent Grand Siècle Masterclass in London, speaking in French and translated by a member of the winery team. ‘At Laurent-Perrier, we believe in our style, our knowledge of the terroir, but what guides us is a focus on precision.’
Exuding understated competence, a man of few words, Vigneron gives the impression of being a slightly reluctant heir to the throne: ‘I wanted to be focused on the production part, I didn’t want to travel the world, I don’t speak English, which is why I didn’t want to be cellar master before, [however] I was very happy to take up the role,’ he tells us, before launching into a detailed description of Laurent-Perrier’s top cuvée, Grand Siècle, that reveals his profound understanding of the house and its raison d’être.
While Laurent-Perrier is one of the largest Champagne producers by market share – ranked third when its subsidiaries, Salon, Delamotte and De Castellane are included – its status as an independent, family-owned house has always driven its sense of purpose, arguably imbuing it with an innovative spirit that would be hard to replicate in a corporate behemoth.
Grand Siècle is a case in point: multi-vintage, premium Champagnes might now be relatively commonplace but the technique was at the very least a novelty, possibly even anathema, in 1959 when de Nonancourt decided that it was time to up the ante, with a prestige cuvée that would surpass those limited to a specific vintage, seeking to create ‘the perfect year’ instead.
Addressing London’s leading Champagne critics at the vertical tasting of Grand Siècle, now in its 26th ‘iteration’ (chosen from the vintages of 2012, ’08 and ’07), Vigneron references the template set down by de Nonancourt 66 years ago, to which he and his team still adhere: ‘Grand Siècle is always composed of three vintages, of which the youngest is the majority; always produced from eight specific Grand cru sites (though a total of 11 are permitted); always the majority Chardonnay; always aged for a minimum of ten years before disgorgement and release (three years longer for magnum formats). The idea is to demonstrate all three layers, primary, secondary and tertiary… this metamorphosis becomes a tactile and emotional experience.’
Vigneron’s message is that there is no recipe, just a guiding spirit and a commitment to continuity and quality
Though Vigneron is new to the role of cellar master, his two decades working alongside his predecessor mean that he has an intimate knowledge of Grand Siècle, so does not find himself in the difficult position of interpreting someone else’s work. Showcasing five ‘iterations’ of Grand Siècle from No. 26 (chosen from the vintages of 2012, ’08 and ’07) back to No. 22 (2004, ’02 and ’99), with No. 24 (2007, ’06 and ’04) tasted from both bottle and magnum – the size of the bottle is so much more important than the disgorgement date, he assures us – the vertical reveals the extraordinary power, purity and precision of Laurent-Perrier’s crown jewels.
At the risk of gilding the lily, Vigneron then shows off two ‘iterations’ of Grand Siècle Les Réserves, representing the pinnacle of the portfolio, wines aged even longer, with No. 20 (1999 ’97 and ’96) and No. 17 (1995, ’93, ’90), from magnum. They underline a point that perhaps was not so well understood just a few years ago: fine Champagne truly rewards patience and offers collectibility to rival the First Growths. Incredibly, all the wines we taste are available to purchase in the UK market, for those with sufficiently deep pockets.
So how does Vigneron intend to define his time as cellar master, successor to Fauconnet, and custodian of de Nonancourt’s legacy? With theatrical flourish, Vigneron reveals a little black book, handed down from his predecessor, which he tells us contains ‘the secret formula’ for Grand Siècle. Holding it up, he flicks through the pages, all of which are blank. His message: there is no recipe, just a guiding spirit and a commitment to continuity and quality.
‘It is all about tasting,’ he tells us, with a wry smile. To describe Vigneron as a ‘safe pair of hands’ risks sounding like faint praise for a cellar master occupying one of the greatest positions in Champagne but for lovers of Laurent-Perrier, it is almost certainly just the reassurance they require.
