Champagne Drappier

Cote des Bars, Aube, Champagne

Established in Urville in the Cote des Bars region in 1808, the Drappier family today grow a 75 hectare (99 acre) estate. Planted by the Gallo Romans circa 1AD, the vineyard was one of the first to be improved by the Cistercians of the Clairvaux Abbey. Saint Bernard participated in the building of Drappier's 12th Century cellars. Andre and Michel Drappier have a firm philosophy, evolved over eight generations, to let the terroir speak by using minimum sulphur and by extracting a remarkably low yield from their vineyards. Drappier is ranked by Champagne authority Tom Stevenson as the most dynamic independent producer of the Aube. Charles de Gaulle, at the time an epicurean neighbour in Colombey les Deux Eglises, came to adorn his cellar with Drappier's most famous cuvees.