1996 Bruno Paillard Champagner Assemblage Millésimé

BRUT MILLESIME 1996

Assemblage Weather conditions in 1996 start with a dry and mild winter, followed by some frost in February. The budding takes place mid-April when temperatures rise strongly. This momentum is stopped in May by a cold temperature but no rain. A warm beginnning of June with a lot of sunlight helps the flowering which happens between the 16th and the 19th. After a lukewarm summer, the first grapes are harvested September 14th and for the last ones October 1st. This year, the sugar contents rises very quickly while the fruit retains an exceptionally high level of acidity. With well chosen harvest dates, the balance between strength and acidity is at a very high level. Altogether these conditions are here to elaborate a exceptional vintage.

This tendency will be largely confirmed by our « Vins Clairs » tastings, and the 1996 vintages in Champagne will stay in all memories.Our 1996 is crafted with a grape selection coming from Côte des blancs Grands Crus (Avize), er crus of the Montagne de Reims (Mailly, Mareuil sur Aÿ, Rilly et Villers Marmery). As always at bruno Paillard, only the first press, the purest, has been used. Bottled in limited quantity, it is offered in bottles ( 48.050 bottles) and also in magnums (1.428 magnums).

This unique blending of 52% Chardonnay and 48% Pinot Noir expresses perfectly the character of the vintage. With a shiny deep gold hue, this wine has also very fine and delicate bubbles. The rich scent of the 1996 vintage expresses aromas of ginger bread followed by tones of toasted brioche as well as candied fruit. The palate is full yet fresh: the notes of candied fruit turn into complex aromas of citrus at the end.

To illustrate this vintage I asked the Italian artist Paola Marchesi to work on the theme «VELVET and STRUCTURE ». Paola MARCHESI was born in Milano in 1966. She attended music classes and studied passionately photography and drawing. Her high standards to achieve poetry, which the abstract world of music had communicated her, made her enrol in the Academy of Beaux-Arts of Milano in the class of sculpture of artists Cavaliere, Cascella and Cassani.. After graduating she attended a class of sculpture and ceramics at the « Chelsea School of Art » of London. Since then she has been participating to group or personal exhibitions in museums, art galleries etc. Minimalist in the most mystical sense of the term, she believes in “the universal value of the “trace” that ties men among them and men to cosmos”. As an artist and a ceramics professor, Paola MARCHESI now lives and works in Alsace, France.