🍾 Bruno Paillard

Bruno Paillard is a Champagne house in Reims, in the Marne department. According to the house, Bruno Paillard, born in Reims in 1953, founded it in January 1981, at the age of 27. In 1985 the young house created its Réserve Perpétuelle of reserve wines and began printing the month and year of disgorgement on the back label of every bottle, which the house describes as a first in Champagne. Alice Paillard joined her father in 2007 and has run the house since 2018; Bruno Paillard is its president.

According to the house, it owns about 25 ha of vines in nearly 100 plots, including 10 ha of grand cru and 5 ha of premier cru, and also buys grapes from around 30 crus. The main wine is Première Cuvée Extra Brut; the range also includes a rosé, a grand cru blanc de blancs, vintage wines and the prestige cuvée N.P.U. (Nec Plus Ultra).

Champagne is a wine with a protected designation of origin (PDO). The bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage), and all production takes place only within the delimited area. Bruno Paillard is a brand; Champagne is the name of a place.

Why it matters to you. A disgorgement date tells you when the bottle was finished and corked; extra brut is a low-sugar category set by the rules, while “Première Cuvée” or “N.P.U.” are the house’s own names. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.