Facts: 18.5 ha - 84.000 btl./year - 100% Chardonnay Grand Cru (Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Oger, Cramant, Avize)

History: Camille Péters began to produce estate-bottled champagnes in 1919. 1929 the house became a full-time récoltant-manipulant. Son Pierre took over the estate in 1947, following his son François in 1967. He expanded the domaine’s vineyards and increased export sales in the US and Scandinavia. 2008 he handed the estate over to his son Rodolphe.

About: Champagne Pierre Péters is among the very best producers of the Côte des Blancs. The champagnes are crystalline, mineral, superfine and elegant.

Rodolphe Péters is rigorous with his allocations. It’s almost impossible to order more than he schedules for you. And you are a lucky one IF you are within that small circle of those that get an allocation from Pierre Peters at all! It happened to us once, that we waited a tiny bit too long till we scheduled our collection and “puff” the allocation was gone! Nightmare… He just thought we were not interested any more.

Péters viticulture is environmentally conscious without being dogmatic. Rodolphe Péters is not a fan of very low yields because he thinks too much concentration can lead to loss of elegance and finesse, which is the signature of blanc de blancs champagne.

For Péters a very slow and gentle pressing of the grapes is one of the key factors in achieving high quality. He pays special attention to the settling of the must, as he believes it’s directly tied to the quality of the mousse. All wines are fermented in stainless steel to retain the original quality of the fruit and to ensure more regular and more consistent fermentation. All of the wines go through malolactic, due to their naturally high acidities.

With his non vintage champagnes Rodolphe Péters performs a “perpetual solera”. That means they contain the current vintage and the previous blend.

Noteworthy: The Extra Brut NV is a non vintage champagne but in "vintage quality" which means, it comes from just one vintage. The main difference to the Millesime is that it's with less dosage and released slightly earlier than the vintage champagne.

The top wine of Pierre Péters is the “Les Chetillons” or “Cuvée Spéciale”. It’s considered to be one of the best single-vineyard champagnes of the Côte des Blancs. It comes from three small parcels in the vineyard of Les Chétillons, one of the most highly-regarded sites in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger: the vines in the oldest plot of 80 ares are 68 years old, another has 45-year old vines and the youngest parcel is 35 years old. The Cuvée Spéciale has been pure Chétillons ever since it was created in 1971, and at that time, it was sold as a Spécial Club wine till François Péters left the Club in 1981. 2000 is the first vintage of Cuvée Spéciale to state the name of the vineyard on the label.

The very chalky parcel of Les Chetillons with its high accidity and minerality in combination with the old vines which give concentrated fruit, generate a thrilling combination. Cuvée Speciale shows it’s best with some years of aging (reaching its peak with about 10 years). There are some collectors of Pierre Péters wines, who love to do vertical wine tastings with the Les Chetillons.

In 2009, Péters released his rosé champagne while developing an unusual technique: 60 % is Chardonnay, blended from the current harvest with a small percentage of reserve wine. 40 % is a saignée of both meunier and chardonnay, obtained from a grower in the Vallée de la Marne that are macerated and fermented together.

What’s new:

There’s a new single-vineyard champagne called “Les Mont Jolis”. As Rodolphe explains it’s a more feminine character, meanwhile the “Les Chetillons” is more like “The Man”. But the first release will be in a few years unfortunately…

There’s also a new NV champagne called “Reserve Oubliée”, with homeopathic quantities, so it may never leave France we are afraid.

In 2013 Péters extended his cellars (pictures can be viewed here) and he ordered some fancy looking cement tanks. Rodolphe says he’s the first one in Champagne using those new modern tanks. He describes those as follows: "First of all, It is not eggs! Those are vats for storage/aging of the reserve wines and not for vinification. I made a lot of experiments about the best way to conserve the reserve wines during the last 6 years and the best process for the style of my wines looks like cement+epoxy against stainless steel or enameled iron. It give more clean, fresh, pure and reductive profil to my wines.

So, I ordered these new thanks to increase the amount of my reserve wines stored in those kind of vats. They are provided by the same supplier that also produces for Chateau Cheval Blanc. I've also ordered one cask by the famous Austrian producer (Stockinger) in order to extend the profile of my reserves, with a part of wines on a softer and smoother texture and a more open profile due to a micro oxidative aging."