Champagne Perrier-Jouët
Founded in 1811, following the marriage of cork merchant Nicolas Perrier to Adèle Jouët, the marque Perrier-Jouët soon took off, and by 1815 the first exports were being made to the Britain, and to the USA in 1837. In 1854 Nicolas and Adèle's son Charles took charge of the company.
At the request of his British customers, Charles Perrier produced the first brut cuvées and the first single year vintages in Champagne. The brand became popular in the court of Queen Victoria. Perrier became Mayor of Epernay. He oversaw the building of the imposing Château Perrier on the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay, and increased the company's vineyard interests, particularly Chardonnay vineyards in the village of Cramant. To this day, Chardonnay is the predominant grape used in Perrier-Jouët's blends.
By 1870 the company was producing over one million bottles a year, with over 75% exported to Great Britain. Charles Perrier had no children, so he left the house to his nephew, Henri Gallice. Under Gallice's leadership, the company continued into prosper into the twentieth century. In 1959 the House was purchased by GH Mumm & Cie, which itself was later bought out by the giant Canadian distiller, Seagram.
In 1902 the house commissioned master glassmaker Emile Gallé to create an unusual bottle. The artist responded with an art deco style bottle bedecked with anenomes. However, the bottle was left in a store cupboard for over sixty years until rediscovered in 1964. The Cuvée Prestige had earlier been conceived by Moët in the shape of their Dom Pérignon, and Perrier Jouët thought the "Flower Bottle" design to be ideal for their new premium wine, the "Cuvée Belle Epoque", introduced in 1969.
In 1987 Perrier-Jouët celebrated their 150th anniversary in the American market, and in the same year became the third most popular Champagne in the US. "Cuvée Belle Epoque" is known as "Fleur de Champagne" in the US. In fact the wine is so popular in the States that in 1999, a consortium of four American investors liked the Champagne so much they bought the company, together with Mumm, from Seagram!
However, they liked money more than Champagne, because in December 2000 P-J was sold along with Mumm to the drinks conglomerate Allied Domecq for a £95m profit. Click here for Allied's Press Release about the purchase.
The wines: