Champagne Armand de Brignac

History of Champagne Armand de Brignac

The story begins well before the brand itself. From 1625, and doubtless earlier, the ancestors of the Cattier family worked the vine on the terroir of Chigny-les-Roses. In 1916, gravely wounded at the front, Jean Cattier returned to the village while Reims lay sixty percent destroyed by bombardment and négociants could no longer source grapes. Rather than lose his meagre harvest, he vinified it himself and signed his first bottles, which were released in 1918 to celebrate the end of the war. In 1951, he acquired the Clos du Moulin, one of the rare historic clos of Champagne, producing from it an eponymous cuvée that became the pinnacle of the Cattier house.

The name Armand de Brignac was born in the 1950s, when Nelly Cattier discovered in a novel she loved a character named Monsieur de Brignac. She found the name noble and registered it for a future wine. It remained forgotten for half a century, until Jean-Jacques Cattier, creating a new prestige cuvée in the early 2000s, decided to honour his mother by adopting it. The Brut Gold was launched in 2006, in a bottle designed by the couture house André Courrèges. Crowned the best Champagne in the world by Fine Champagne Magazine in 2010, it rose to prominence with remarkable speed. Since 2011, Alexandre Cattier, an oenologist trained in Australia, has led the estate. The brand is today owned in equal shares by American rapper Jay-Z and the LVMH group, via Moët Hennessy, which handles its worldwide distribution.

Terroirs and Vines of Champagne Armand de Brignac

The Cattier family owns thirty-three hectares located across some of the most renowned crus of the Montagne de Reims, principally Rilly-la-Montagne, Chigny-les-Roses and Ludes. This estate supplies approximately half of the grapes needed for Armand de Brignac, with the remainder purchased from trusted partner growers in selected villages. Selection is never made by default: each year, the team seeks out the plots presenting the most remarkable character, regardless of their classification, based on what the season has offered.

All three Champenois grape varieties feature in the blends: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. The Chardonnays come notably from the Grand Crus of the Côte des Blancs such as Cramant, Avize, Oger and Chouilly, the Pinots Noirs from renowned crus such as Verzenay, Verzy, Mailly-Champagne, Chigny-les-Roses and Rilly-la-Montagne, complemented depending on the cuvée by grapes from Ville-sur-Arce in the Aube. Villers-Allerand, Villers-Marmery, Taissy and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ also feature among the Premier Crus called upon. Sustainability is a central principle in the management of the family vineyard, certified Haute Valeur Environnementale at level 3, the highest, as well as Viticulture Durable en Champagne.

Winemaking at Champagne Armand de Brignac

After a manual harvest, the grapes are pressed at one of the two pressing centres owned by the family, located as close as possible to the vines. Only the very first and freshest fraction of the cuvée juice is retained — the house's absolute signature — guaranteeing a must vibrant with fruit, a supple texture and a balanced acidity. Winemaking follows traditional methods, with a portion aged under wood, and the blends systematically combine three distinct vintages in order to unite the freshness of a young harvest with the depth of more mature wines, while maintaining stylistic continuity from one edition to the next.

The bottles then age for a minimum of three years on lees in a dedicated section of the family's cellars, located one hundred and ninety-nine steps underground. At disgorgement, each bottle receives a unique liqueur composed of the best base wine from the harvest, aged for one year in new French oak barrels, which imparts subtle notes of pastry, vanilla and toast. Finally comes the dressing: each bottle is metallized, then its French pewter labels are applied and hand-polished, with a craftsman able to complete only around twenty per hour, so that no two bottles are ever identical. The house offers the most extensive collection of large formats in all of prestige champagne, from the 1.5-litre magnum to the very rare 30-litre Midas, made to special order.

The Cuvées of Champagne Armand de Brignac

Brut Gold: the very first creation of the house, launched in 2006, and by far the most iconic in its golden bottle struck with the ace of spades. A blend of three grape varieties from a trio of vintages sourced from the most renowned terroirs, it offers a vibrant and fresh fruity character, a smooth texture, and notes of white fruits and citrus lifted by the brioche touch of the high dosage aged under wood.

Rosé: a luminous and complex cuvée, crafted by adding approximately eighteen percent of still red wine to the final blend. The Pinot Noir comes from old vines on the Montagne de Reims, renowned for the intensity of their fruit, which gives the wine a deep texture and successive layers of fresh red fruits, complemented by notes of baked pastry. A gastronomic rosé to be enjoyed from the start to the end of the evening.

Demi-Sec: the only prestige demi-sec in the world, crafted with the same ultra-strict selection of the first fraction of the pressing. Its dosage is deliberately set at the lowest end of the category's range, which allows it to retain great fruit intensity, the complexity brought by additional ageing on lees, and a perfectly balanced sweetness — ideal with spiced cuisines as well as desserts.

Blanc de Blancs: a very small-production cuvée made entirely from Chardonnay, a portion of which comes from the grape variety's historic territory, the Côte des Blancs, and nearly half from the Montagne de Reims. This unusual blend combines minerality, suppleness, roundness and lightness, with a particularly high ageing potential. Candied citrus, white flowers and a long chalky finish.

Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 1: the brand's first blanc de noirs, launched in 2015, made entirely from Pinot Noir. It laid the foundations for a numbered series that has become one of the most sought-after objects in collectible champagne, each bottle bearing an individual number and its disgorgement date. An intense, vinous and full-bodied style, marked by dark fruits and a powerful texture.

Blanc de Noirs Assemblages No. 2 and No. 3: the two following editions in the series, also produced in extremely limited runs and made entirely from Pinot Noir. Each offers a different interpretation of the finest black-grape crus from Champagne, with the same exacting selection standards and the same individual numbering that make them highly prized cellar pieces among collectors.

Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 4: crafted from grapes sourced from some of the finest Premier and Grand Cru villages for Pinot Noir, including Chigny-les-Roses, Verzenay, Rilly-la-Montagne, Verzy, Ludes, Mailly-Champagne and Ville-sur-Arce in the Aube. Only 7,328 bottles exist in the world, with the first release offered through the special La Collection set.

Blanc de Noirs Assemblage No. 5: the latest addition to the series, presented as the fully realised evolution of Assemblage No. 1. This one hundred percent Pinot Noir seeks the precise balance between intensity and aromatic lightness, in a singular style. Only 8,165 bottles were produced, each inscribed with its number and its disgorgement date of 21 August 2024.

Blanc de Noirs Millésime 2015: the first vintage cuvée in the history of Armand de Brignac, which represents a departure for a brand built on the blending of three harvests. Only 1,258 bottles were released to the market, each numbered and bearing its disgorgement date of 8 February 2024. An absolute rarity, reserved for the most discerning enthusiasts.

Green Brut, Golfer's Limited Edition: a limited edition dressed in a green jacket, a nod to the world of golf. A brut cuvée with an elegant and vibrant style, conceived as the ideal toast at the end of a round, it is delivered in a lacquered wooden box and bears the same French pewter labels as the rest of the range.

La Collection: an exceptional set bringing together a 75-centilitre bottle of each cuvée in the range, conceived as a vertical tasting of the Cattier house's expertise. Certain rare editions of the Blanc de Noirs series were launched through this set, making it as much a collector's item as a complete tasting experience.