Bruno Paillard is perhaps best known in Champagne for being the first to list the date of degorgment on every bottle he produces. Below, in an exclusive, not-yet-published, interview with Alison Napjus of the Wine Spectator, he explains the significance behind it.
When did Maison BP start to give this info?
I started giving this date of degorgement (month+year) on the back label of all my wines in 1985, 26 years ago, only a few years after creating my Maison. This was written on 100% of my wines, whatever cuvee, bottle size, and destination. At that time it was a largely ignored subject. I wasnt just the first one, I have also been the only one to give this information for at least 15 years. (In the late 90′s Maison Philipponnat of Mareuil sur Ay, and Maison Charles Heidsieck of Reims started to give this info. More recently Maison Lanson of Reims also made this info available. It is the first time a “multi million bottles” Grande Marque gives this info. Some growers also now give it.)
Why?
The motivation was to try and explain to consumers that Champagne is -or can be- a great wine, and as such has its life, its specific kind of maturation, including after degorgement. The problem is that there was a widely spread feeling that “Champagne doesn’t age”. This had been a dominant message for decades. To try and encourage people to discover the wonderful extra complexity which post-degorgement maturation can offer, the first step was to know when the degorgement actually happened…hence my decision to make this info available to consumers.
What happens after Degorgement?
Well, first do you know what the cellar workers call the degorgement? They say “operation”. That’s interesting: it’s the same word as “surgery”. And that’s exactly what it is: you open the living bottle, you remove the sediment, you replace with the dosage and you close with the new, final, cork. If you think of the wine as being alive you can easily understand that after this surgery the first thing it needs is a convalescence, a recovery rest.
Are you suggesting the wine shouldn’t be drunk right after the degorgement?
Absolutely. The first thing the wine needs after degorgement is a recovery rest, which length depends on its age. Take the comparison with an appendicitis surgery : a boy of 15 may well go back to play football with his friends after only 4/5 months. But the same surgery on a 30 yrs old person will require a longer recovery rest of maybe 1 year, and if the person is 40, maybe 2 yrs will be needed, etc. So a Champagne doesn’t show at its best right after degorgement: it is under a surgery shock, it needs to settle down and rest.
Then, what happens after this rest?
Well, I am talking only for the greatest Champagnes, those which were well born and well raised, and I can assure you that -if well stored- they will mature gracefully. Roughly explained, they will go through 6 or 7 “lives” or “ages”. First the aromas will be fresh fruit dominated. Then these will cumulate with flowery aromas. Later will also appear spices, then toastiness, then honey/ginger bread/marzipan, then candied fruit, and much later even roasted coffe/torrefaction. It’s fascinating how great Champagne wines can mature. Clearly they are among the wines which can mature the best.
Any technical problem/difficulty?
Absolutely none. All we have to do is to print the exact number of back labels corresponding to each degorgement. (We also print the info outside each carton so no need to open to know). Then of course all this wouldn’t make sense if we didnt give our wines an apropriate recovery rest in our cellars before labelling and shipping. For the younger wines, i.e., our Brut Premiere Cuvee and Rose Premiere Cuvee, this minimal recovery rest is 5 to 6 months before shipment. For the Blanc de Blancs Grand Crus, 10 months, for the single-vintage cuvees, 1 year to 18 months, and for our N.P.U-Nec Plus Ultra, 2yrs. This is absolutely unique in Champagne. And in fact the real cost of publishing the disgorgement date is here: it clearly imposes an extra maturation, hence extra financing costs. But as says BP : “time doesn’t respect what you do without it”.
A recent post on The Tasty Side of Life blog praises 
