Grande Sendrée: a cuvée risen from the ashes
History runs through Champagne Drappier Grande Sendrée, from a 19th-century fire to winemaking that still learns from the past.
A top cuvée Champagne is always an event; in its joining of history, terroir and expertise, each has a different story to tell of the famous region. Some might put the spotlight on a single grape and its potential. Others might highlight a particular winemaking technique. In the case of Drappier Grande Sendrée, it has a story to tell of Champagne’s cycles of tradition, innovation and rebirth.
The Drappier family has grown grapes for wine around Urville, in the Côte des Bar, since 1808. It has therefore seen struggle and triumph across two centuries: from starting the business as the Napoleonic Wars swept across France, through industrialisation, to World Wars in the 20th century. With each challenge and opportunity, the house has endured.
The Grande Sendrée plots offer that story in microcosm. They were named after a misspelling of ‘cendres’ (French for ‘cinders’). After a devastating fire in the fields of Urville in 1836, fertile soils were created that were ripe for planting vines. This terroir, dominated by Kimmeridgian chalk akin to that in Chablis, is now the source of Drappier Grande Sendrée.
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Yet the cuvée relies on more than its place for evidence of Champagne’s knack for renewal. The blend, for instance, combines Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. That may sound unremarkable, until you realise that it was Drappier which, in the 1930s, reintroduced Pinot Noir to this corner of the Aube. Drappier Grande Sendrée, a renowned cuvée that relies heavily on the grape, demonstrates the success of that project.
Likewise, in its winemaking, the release demonstrates lessons learned from a long history. Many of the techniques – solely manual remuage, gravity feeding, oak ageing for all the wines and a liqueur de dosage which is aged for 15 years in wood – learn from the region’s long history. Even the bottle is a throwback, taking its shape from an 18th-century example found in the cellars in Urville.
The result combines a modern taste for expressive brut Champagne and the complexity added by historic techniques. The 2015 vintage hails from a sunny year, offering aromatic ripeness, and spent eight years on the lees to layer in rich secondary and tertiary tones. It is a meeting of Champenois varieties, limestone terroir, a rewarding vintage and centuries-old expertise: a tribute to Champagne’s continuing development as the world’s centre of fine sparkling wine.
Champagne Drappier Grande Sendrée 2015
- Grape varieties: 55% Pinot Noir,
- 45% Chardonnay
- Residual sugar: 4.2g/l
- ABV: 12%
- Approx. retail price: £150
A Champagne with a beautiful light gold appearance, suggesting a fairly mature state, confirmed by a complex nose featuring aromas of baked apple, caramel, pastry and dried fruit. The palate, similarly, shows some evolved as well as ripe fruit characters, although the finish is very dry, while the sense of refreshment is bolstered by firm, fine bubbles. In terms of flavours, there is a mix of dried apple and pastry, even some burnt sugar, which combine to taste like a fine tarte tatin, complemented by notes of beeswax and hazelnuts, and a touch of candied citrus too. Persistent, aged, but fresh, and made in a manner that leans towards an oxidative style. A Champagne for many occasions, including quite rich fish-based dishes or hard cheese. (Patrick Schmitt MW)
