Armand de Brignac Champagne

FOR 250 YEARS THE CATTIER FAMILY DREAM

Jean-Jacques Cattier and his son Alexandre are the 11th and 12th generation of winemakers in the family, respectively, and the producers of the prestigious Armand de Brignac Champagnes. Their dream was to create a superior Champagne that would become a leader in the region where their family has tended and cultivated vines for more than 250 years.

A TEAM OF 18 EXPERTS

Bottles of Armand de Brignac Champagne pass through the hands of no more than 18 highly skilled people, from the pressing of the grapes to the moment the bottles leave the cellar. Each step in the process is handled personally by the people in charge: from the harvesting (done by hand), to the polishing, to the application of the French pewter labels, which is also done manually. The team that produces Armand de Brignac Champagne, relieved of the pressure of having to achieve high production volumes, can focus intently on each detail and thus ensure exceptional quality at every stage of processing.

THE VINEYARDS.

The Cattier family resides in the Montagne de Reims region and owns 33 hectares devoted to vineyards in some of the most renowned cru in all of Champagne, including the villages of Rilly-la-Montagne, Chigny-les-Roses and Ludes.

Grapes are carefully selected thanks to the Cattier family’s innate experience and expertise, so Champagne’s grape varieties, after 250 years of winemaking in the region, no longer hold any secrets.

Each year a painstaking search is made for the best varieties, those with the most striking character regardless of cru, to use the best fruit produced by Mother Nature in that vintage.

Sustainability is one of the fundamental principles on which the Cattier family’s business is based; their land is certified HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale, high environmental value) level 3, the highest level certification issued by the French government, indicating the level of care the Cattier family employs towards the environment, to protect it for generations to come.

WINEMAKING

Only the freshest and best quality portions of the cuvée pressing are selected to produce champagne of the highest quality, the hallmark of the Armand de Brignac range. Such selectivity and scrupulous attention to detail ensures that the must is rich in fruity notes and endowed with a strong character, exceptional smoothness and excellently balanced acidity.

THREE DIFFERENT VINTAGES

A unique feature of Armand de Brignac Champagne is the decision to perform a blend of three vintages: each blend enhances its distinctive characters without affecting the continuity of notes and characters that can be found in the different blends.

FRENCH OAK

Each bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne is treated by performing an exclusive blending with the best base wines aged for one year in French oak barrels. This added touch of class in winemaking provides complexity and structure to the cuvées, introducing notes of baked pastries, vanilla and hints of toastiness.

ARMAND DE BRIGNAC BRUT GOLD

Brut Gold is the first champagne produced by Champagne Armand de Brignac and is still the most representative cuvée of the entire range. This blend encapsulates all the style and tradition of European Champagne production, encompassing three vintages from some of the region’s finest terroirs; the resulting cuvée expresses vibrant notes of fresh fruit, proving smooth on the palate.

THE BOTTLE.

In the 1950s Nelly Cattier, mother of Jean-Jacques, came across the character of “M. De Brignac” in the course of a reading. He decided that it was a very noble name, and registered the trademark for future use in the production of a new wine. The name was then forgotten until Jean-Jacques, in the process of creating a new tête de cuvée at the beginning of the third millennium, decided to pay tribute to his mother by using this evocative designation.

Each Armand de Brignac bottle is metal lined and finished by polishing and applying French pewter labels by hand. Each worker can make a maximum of 20 bottles per hour; therefore, all bottles are different from each other and unique.