In the eye of the beholder: Champagne Drappier talks colour

The house’s winemaker, Michel Drappier, explores what colour reveals about Champagne, as our Global Wine Masters judges taste the range.

In the world of luxury wine, Champagne Drappier understands that colour is often overlooked. Compared to the complex aromas, running the gamut from zesty citrus to dried fruits and from toast to mushroom, colour is often forgotten in describing the world-renowned wines. Michel Drappier, in his family’s award-winning wines, is therefore choosing to stress that colour is vital to quality Champagne.

This is not least because Champagne is an entire spectrum. Although the term sometimes features to suggest a golden beige, it is an unhelpful oversimplification. The range of colours in Champagne spans several hues: deep pink, light raspberry, pale pear-yellow and topaz, to name a few.

Indeed, colour matching company Pantone renamed a colour in recognition that one hue could not do justice to the region’s wines. The longstanding ‘Beige Champagne’ colour (14-1012) became ‘Gilded Beige’.

Drappier believes the significance is even greater. Though most in the wine trade are accustomed to evaluating Champagne’s flavour profiles, the colour can give key hints to its composition, winemaking and quality.

A wine’s hue may well point to its variety. “Chardonnay gives blonde wines,” he explains “while Pinot Noir and its brother Meunier give golden rich, sometimes coppery golds.” Added nuances emerge when considering Champagne’s less famous varieties, which Champagne Drappier uses in several cuvées. Arbanne, according to Drappier, gives straw yellow with green shades, whereas Fromenteau produces a slightly orange shade. Blanc Vrai resembles ripe blackberry, while Petit Meslier is closer to plum.

Similarly, the wine’s colour might indicate vintage and age in a Champagne. Hot vintages, an increasing phenomenon, tend to show deeper shades. Age will also affect the colour. In a blanc de blancs, the progression will be from green almond to amber yellow, while a blancs de noirs is more likely to turn from youthful “golden bread” to coppery gold.

Most crucially for the drinker, colour can explain quality. Certainly, the brown, cloudy look of an oxidised wine is a warning that the wine may have been poorly kept. “It is like a painting that has been covered in black paint such that the colours have disappeared,” quips Drappier.

The colour may likewise allow a consumer to pick a wine that matches their tastes. Low-intervention practices, which are increasingly in vogue, may be reflected in the wine’s intensity. Sulphites are prone to lightening wines, as will the clay filtration sometimes used for the two Pinots. Like overdone dosage, these interventions run the risk of stripping flavour as well as colour.

For Drappier, those interventions are best avoided. “The aromas, flavours, textures and colours are better preserved,” he says. “The diversity of aromas and tastes is to be treasured.”

Perhaps it goes against the grain of Champagne as big business, but Champagne Drappier’s appreciation for colour authenticity is refreshing. And Michel Drappier is unrepentant. “If we are different,” he concludes, “long-live difference!”

A selection of Champagne Drappier’s wines were blind-tasted by our Global Wine Masters judges. The wines are featured below, with tasting notes by Patricia Stefanowicz MW.

Champagne Drappier Carte d’Or NV

• Producer: Champagne Drappier
• Region: Champagne
• Country: France
• Grape varieties: 80% Pinot Noir, 15% Chardonnay, 5% Meunier
• ABV: 12.0%
• Vintage: NV
• Closure: Champagne Cork
• Approx. retail price: £47.00
• Medal: Gold

A lovely start to a focused blind tasting of these wines. This wine is benchmark ‘multi-vintage’ Champagne. Medium yellow-gold in hue with persistent bubbles and a narrow cordon, the aromatics show rich and ripe fruit—golden apples and red berries—and buttered toast autolysis. Brut-style, the medium-bodied palate has racy acidity and crackling mousse texture to support the concentrated yellow and red fruit flavours and toasty notes. Lingering finish, a delicious drink.

Champagne Drappier Brut Nature NV

• Producer: Champagne Drappier
• Region: Champagne
• Country: France
• Grape variety: 100% Pinot Noir
• ABV: 12.0%
• Vintage: NV
• Closure: Champagne Cork
• Approx. retail price: £59.00
• Medal: Gold

A stunning example of pure Pinot Noir, this Champagne is medium yellow-gold in hue with just the tiniest hint of peach and persistent streams of tiny bubbles. The nose shows wild strawberry and red cherry fruit with toasty, croissant autolysis adding breadth. Tasted blind, the palate shows that the wine is Brut nature in style but quite rich and round with sustained flavour supported by bracing acidity and brittle mousse texture and has a long finish. This is a really attractive wine with plenty of intensity and grip. A truly gastronomic expression of Champagne.

Champagne Drappier Clarevallis NV

• Producer: Champagne Drappier
• Region: Champagne
• Country: France
• Grape varieties: 75% Pinot Noir, 10% Chardonnay, 10% Meunier, 5% Blanc Vrai
• ABV: 12.0%
• Vintage: NV
• Closure: Champagne Cork
• Approx. retail price: £60.00
• Medal: Gold

Inspired by the 12th century Clairvaux monastery of St. Bernard, this Champagne displays a mid-deep gold colour and tiny bubbles that migrate gently to the edge of the cordon. The aromatic nose has yellow peach and apricot with butter and cream autolysis and crushed yellow rose and violet accents. The Brut-style palate, too, is beautifully perfumed, medium-bodied with linen-textured mousse and bracing acidity framing the flavours. Integrated and showing some development across the mid-palate, the wine has a lengthy, savoury finish. Excellent example.

Champagne Drappier Trop m’en Faut NV

• Producer: Champagne Drappier
• Region: Champagne
• Country: France
• Grape variety: 100% Fromenteau
• ABV: 12.0%
• Vintage: NV
• Closure: Champagne Cork
• Approx. retail price: £85.00
• Medal: Master

Produced from a ‘relative’, or a local mutation, of Pinot Gris (Beurot), Fromenteau gives this lovely aromatic, floral wine displaying gentle wisteria and white peach with intense buttered toast, smoke and leesy overtones. A deep gold-coloured wine with small bubbles, the medium-bodied palate displays rich, intense flavours bolstered by very crisp acidity and velvet-textured mousse leading to a long, savoury finish. Mature now but with time in hand.

Champagne Drappier La Grande Sendrée 2012

• Producer: Champagne Drappier
• Region: Champagne
• Country: France
• Grape varieties : 55% Pinot Noir, 45% Chardonnay
• ABV: 12.0%
• Vintage: 2012
• Closure: Champagne Cork
• Approx. retail price: £120.00
• Medal: Master

From a stunning vintage, this exquisite Champagne has a deep gold hue with long-lasting streams of minuscule bubbles. The nose exhibits plenty of red berry fruits and yellow apples with enticing accents of cream (from a little wood ageing), butter, yellow roses and lemon zest. Nearly dry Brut-style, the palate shows development with sous-bois notes adding interest to the rich and round, concentrated flavours. The satin-textured mousse and racy acidity support the wine. Fantastically layered and textured, hints of allspice and cinnamon come through on the mid-palate and continue through the finish. A fabulous wine, drinking well now, but will certainly keep for some years.