HISTORY
The fully-owned 6-hectare vineyard stretches along the towns of Verzy and Verzenay, a Grand Cru area in the “Montagne de Reims”. Only the best vines are classified Grand Cru, an honor granted to less than 13% of the vineyards in the Champagne region. Chardonnet’s ancestors were already growing vines in Verzenay since the 17th Century, and the Penet family bought their first vines in Verzy during the French Revolution.In the early 1930’s an integrated Champagne business was set up, followed by the acquisition in 1951 of Mumm’s 19th century cellars in Verzy by Gilbert and Désiré Penet. In the 1940’s, Gilbert’s son Emile bought a magnificent 19th century house and winery where he made and sold exclusive handcrafted Champagnes for 50 years. As a mayor of Verzy for 18 years, he and his wife Marguerite also hosted many high society events, some of which with Charles de Gaulle’s close collaborators. Emile extended the estate by buying more land, and was also the first person in town to use a tractor in the early 1960’s. In 1967 Marie-Louise Chardonnet brought her historical vines from Verzenay to the estate, by marrying Emile’s son Christian. In the 1980’s, Christian, willing to expand the estate even more, personally built a state-of-the-art winery which enabled the family to magnify the outstanding quality of the wines and better control the process from the vine to the bottle, while benefiting from more modern equipments and improved working conditions. The winery became the largest in town, and is still nowadays the main production site of the estate.
Today, Alexandre Penet represents the fifth generation to run the estate. From a young age, Alexandre assisted first his grandfather Emile and then his father Christian in the ancient art of champagne making, developing from childhood a passion for the family heritage. After having worked in different industries during the early part of his professional career, he is now able to bring together the efficient processes learnt in his strategic management experiences with his lifelong family wine expertise, substantially enriching a business where tradition and modernity go hand in hand.
THE PRODUCTION PROCESS
Each bottle of Penet -Chardonnet Champagne is made with the passion and historical expertise of five generations. The estate grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, used in all the cuvees, are carefully handpicked at the perfect time during the harvest and rigorously selected, ensuring only the very best grapes are used. The grapes are pressed in-house using a Coquard press, considered the top equipment in Champagne. The juices are then carefully separated, keeping only the best ones (first press or cuvée”) for the Penet-Chardonnet wines.
Most of the wines are fermented in stainless steel vats and do not undergo malolactic fermentation, thereby preserving the original acidity of the grapes and enhancing their natural fruit. The process allows the fruit character to develop more fully through the potential for greater bottle ageing. This, coupled with a minimum of 4 years of ageing ‘sur lie’ ensures finely moussed Champagnes of depth and real complexity, perfectly reflecting their “terroir” specificity. Making outstanding, non-vintage Champagnes requires experienced knowledge to blend the right grapes at the right time from the year’s harvest and reserve wines. Penet -Chardonnet has enhanced this art of blending for decades, producing a wine with personal style and full of character and distinction. Only the rarest of excellent vintages allow Penet -Chardonnet to produce the Grande Reserve and Diane Claire, its finest cuvées. Due to the nature of the stringent selection process undergone in creating the Diane Claire, quantities of this preeminent cuvée are very limited.
• Non-vintage, aged 7 years on the lees, with 15% reserve wine kept in barrels, and “zero dosage”. This exceptionally complex and full bodied Champagne leaves a gorgeous hint of green apples in the mouth and a long minerally overtone. Precise and clean on the palate, the Grande Reserve perfectly accompanies grilled fish or salmon mousse.
Barry (Wineaux MD) and Alexandre Penet in front of the Grand Cru vineyards
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