Discourse with ‘Don’ Drappier
Michel Drappier sips his champagne at the Bangalore Wine Club dinner. Image courtesy Ritz Carlton Bangalore
Michel Drappier visited India and left his mark. Sitting down to analyse why, several things popped into my mind. One, that he was fluently expressive about his champagnes – probably one of the most fluent and expressive winemakers I’ve met recently. And he was also friendly and engaging enough for a fellow blogger to swooningly refer to him as the Don Draper of the champagne world. Quite a hyperbole, but then again champagne, they say, is all about bubbles, the good life and perhaps a few Mad Men. Not that there is anything mad about Drappier. He is sharp and articulate. It also helps that he makes very good champagne.
Drappier’s wine is also expressive. And different. A little apart from the majority of delicate, elegant grandes marques so beloved of the champagne-quaffing cognoscenti attending every fine dinner and celebration. Here are wines with body, made to be paired with food. Reason enough for Champagne Drappier to be named one of the top #3 Champagnes You Never Heard Of by Forbes magazine. A non sequitur? Peut-etre. Read on.
The Drappier Carte d’Or on ice
An hour before a 50 guest, 6-course sit-down dinner at The Ritz Carlton Bangalore featuring six stellar and distinct Drappier cuvées, I sat down for a tête-à-tête with Michel Drappier. My first question to him was one that I ask many producers of fine wine who come a-calling to India. With its tough taxes and niche profile of wine drinkers, what made him think India was worth the major spend in terms of time and effort?
“Yes I do,” he said, “I agree, India is very small for Champagne – there are only 17 champagnes listed in India out of the 5000 houses in Champagne. Even China, for that matter, has only 100 champagnes listed. But in Champagne we feel these numbers will grow. I am optimistic. I don’t want to be big. I just want to be available in places where champagne lovers live.”
This July’s much awaited listing of Champagne as a World Heritage site by UNESCO has moved things up a notch for Comité Champagne, the powerful trade organization representing Champagne growers and producers. Drappier is situated a little off the beaten track in the Côte des Bar region in southern Champagne’s Aube – a tiny village called Urville. “The heart of Drappier beats in the village,” he said dramatically, going on to describe with passion the soil, so similar to that of Chablis nearby. The rich soil lends minerality and heft to the Pinot Noir which forms the backbone of Drappier’s champagnes. (Michel’s grandfather Georges was the first to plant Pinot Noir grapes in the Aube, earning the nickname Père Pinot.)
