Page 53 - Hong_Kong_&_Macau's_Best_Restaurants_English_edition

PRISTINE
PURITY
La Cuvée is
Laurent-Perrier’s
newest flagship
brut champagne

It is the house’s winery that has been
responsible for cultivating this fine craftsmanship
over the years, with just three men having held the
title of Laurent-Perrier’s Cellar Master since 1950.
Today, that privilege is held by Michel Fauconnet;
together with his expert team, Fauconnet has
continued to refine and grow the house’s inimitable
mastery of blending, a meticulously honed skill
that lies at the heart of the whole art of making
world-class champagnes.
At Laurent-Perrier, making the best wines starts
by selecting the best juices at the wine press. The
team works with three grape varietals: a majority a remarkably consistent style for this aromatically
of chardonnay, then pinot noir and finally pinot deep champagne, which sings with notes of
meunier. Fauconnet and his team select the still hazelnut, honey and freshly baked pastries.
wines that go into the composition of each drink Laurent-Perrier’s long history and unparalleled
from 17 grands crus, 44 premiers crus and the blending expertise is what gives the house the
best wines from 320 villages that make up the knowledge and skills to recreate the perfect
Champagne appellation. year—but the house’s storied tradition for
As the saying goes, good things come to freshness, creativity and innovation shouldn’t be
those who wait—and great patience is required to underestimated, either. Just as all these qualities
ensure that Laurent-Perrier’s cuvées are perfect come together to create Grand Siècle, they come
and ready to drink as soon as they are released to the fore again for La Cuvée, the house’s newest
into the market. To ensure the characteristic flagship brut and a champagne of perfect balance.
Laurent-Perrier house style is produced year after Fauconnet was inspired to craft La Cuvée by
year, the winery waits for the perfect balance the qualitative increase in the house’s supplies over
between a base year and the reserve wines. the past 15 years. The wine comes from the purest
This quest for perfection is epitomised in the of grape juices—a blend with more than 50 per
house’s Grand Siècle, the brainchild of Bernard de cent chardonnay (nearly double the average usually
Nonancourt. He believed that nature alone would found in champagne), which gives this drink its truly
never provide the perfect wine-producing year, singular personality. It’s then aged for four years
but Laurent-Perrier’s mastery of blending could in the Laurent-Perrier cellars to reach the perfect
bring the best of the best together—and thus maturity. With a complexity that is expressed in
create something even better. The resulting Grand successive notes of vine peach and white fruits,
Siècle is a selection of three of the house’s most it boasts a perfect balance between freshness,
exceptional vintage years, carefully selected to delicacy, a subtle effervescence and fruity flavours
have perfectly complementary profiles. Exclusively at the finish.
assembled from 11 of the 17 chardonnay and Fresh, pure, complex, elegant and utterly
pinot noir grands crus in the Champagne region, strikingly unique—both Grand Siècle and La Cuvée
Grand Siècle is then extensively aged before being are living proof why Laurent-Perrier’s eternal quest
made available on the market, thereby ensuring for perfection is always worth the effort. Q