Joseph Perrier

The History

In the 19th century
The Perriers, an important family dating back to the diligence !
Joseph, the son of wine merchant, François-Alexandre, established the Champagne House in 1825, “Joseph Perrier Fils et Cie”. They settled in Châlons-Sur- Marne, on the road to Fagnières. The offices are housed in an old post house and the wine cellars in the adjoining master residence. During that period, Chalons-Sur- Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne) had several hectares of vineyards and approximately ten distinguished Champagne Houses.

The Third Millennium
The Joseph Perrier House is in constant expansion:
New dispatching building, new production yard, new stainless steel vats with a four thousand hectolitre capacity and a new disgorgement and labelling site. The House remains located at the original address of 69 Avenue de Paris, in Chalons-en-Champagne, and loyal to its origins.

The Vineyards
Verneuil village
Where Joseph Perrier owns twelve hectares of Pinot Meunier on the hillside, 7 of these in a single parcel are carefully protected from spring freezes by spraying water.
Supplies
The House’s 21 hectares satisfy 30% of the produ-ction. The rest comes from 30 crus, on The Mountain of Reims. La Côte des Blancs and the region of Vitry are delivered by winegrowers, from father to son, in relation to Joseph Perrier for three to four generations.

Domaine de Cumières
In the sea of vineyards that snake up and down the hillsides from Hautvillers to The Marne River, there are 9 hectares of Joseph Perrier vineyards ; and a family dwelling with French garden and residence sheltering cellars, wine press, settling vats. Grapes from the Hautvillers and Damery crus are brought here to be pressed and transformed into Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs and a remarkable pinot noir also used to make the Cumières red wine.
 
From Grape Juice to Wine
Harvest
Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir are all present in the House’s Champagnes. They come from the 31,000 hectares of vineyards in Champagne appellation (AOC). Harvested by hand, only the finest, most mature, gathered into small 10 kilogram baskets, the selection process is rigorous. The grapes must not be damaged or torn at the risk of staining the white wine. The house of Joseph Perrier is vigilant about the grape quality.

Pressing
Presented in 50 kilogram containers, the grapes are then crushed in our wine presses. Four thousand kilograms produce 2550 litres of must, of which only 2050 litres compose the first press, “la cuvee”. The juice is transferred into settling vats where it stays for fifteen hours and the pectins, soil, and other particles settle naturally to the bottom of the vat. The juice is then pumped and transferred to fermen-tation cellars.

Fermentation
To the settled juice, the cellar master adds sugar beet to adjust the probable alcoholic degree, called “chaptalisation”. Then, the alcoholic fermentation takes place , that consists in adding selected yeasts to the sweetened juice. The yeasts feed off the sugar and are transformed into alcohol and carbonic gas. The juice becomes wine. A second division separates the wine and the yeast.

Blending
Blending is the House signature. It is the artistic work of the cellar master, Claude Dervin. Because there are at least seven “grands crus” in a great Champagne, depending on the year, Claude blends his wines from different crus selecting distinct tastes to maintain a constant and delicious blend for his Cuvee Royale Brut and other blends. The next step is the chilling of the wine and filtering to eliminate sediment and obtain a clear and brilliant wine.

Bottling
A precise quantity of sugar and yeast is added to the still wine upon which the wine is bottled. The bottles are then stocked in the cellar. The sugar is once again dissipated by the yeast. The resulting CO2 is imprisoned in the bottle, and dissolves little by little to create “la prise de mousse”. Effervescence!

Riddling
Bottles are then ready for riddling. The bottles are placed upside-down on sloping racks and are manually turned and tilted an eighth of a turn everyday for two to three months; or mechanically for a week thanks to modern riddling machines, “gyropalettes”. From this position, yeast sediment settles in the bottleneck..

Disgorgement
This is the process that eliminates the sediment from the bottleneck. Upon freezing the sediment in the bottleneck, the crown cap is expelled to evacuate the deposit, and the cellar master then adds sugar and aged wine to achieve the desired sugar content: eight to twelve grams per litre for the brut and twenty to twenty five for the demi sec. The Champagne is then aged in our cellars for three to six months and is ready to be labelled and shipped.

Labelling
As would a fine dressmaker, Joseph Perrier takes an interest in the tailoring of their bottles. Labelling, headdress, wire muzzle, all labelling operations are naturally automated, yet supervised by a professional who has an eye for perfection. For the prestigious “Josephine cuvee”, for example, the eye of the wire muzzle is always placed behind the neck-label. The largest bottles: jeroboam (3 litres), mathusalem (6 litres), and salmanazar (9 litres) are labelled by hand. The House cultivates their difference in such details.