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 Michel Drappier is a seventh generation family winemaker who takes pride not only in making fine champagne but also cares a lot for sustainable and organic farming. Domaine Drappier became a zero carbon footprint wine producer last year-the first one in Champagne. He has now changed the shape of the bottle to make it more congruent with these objectives.
Old champagne in New Bottle
The new bottle was introduced in Europe a few months ago but was used for the first time for champagne exported through his distributor Ace Beveragez a few weeks ago by air. At the Hyderabad event, the Cart d’Or Brut was popped from a Methuselah celebratory bottle (6 liters/8 regular bottles) on the first day at the Taj Falaknuma while the second day saw the Grand Sendrée 2008 poured from the regular 750 mL bottles.
It was Taj Mansingh in Delhi where the Brut champagne was served from the new bottle. Explaining to the guests, Michel Drappier said the colour of the glass had been now made dark in order to keep Ultra Violet (UV) rays from harming the liquid in the bottle and thus helping to keep it fresh longer. The neck has been made smaller in diameter, thus resulting in reducing the chance of contact with the oxygen by 17%.
At the bottom of the bottle, the words Domaine Drappier are embossed to avoid fake bottles coming into the market. The bottle has the regular punt but is slightly lighter than the ones being used so far. The Rose variant would also be using this bottle in future.
Many innovations
 One of the major innovations has been the use of recycled glass (90%) which needs less heat to convert and hence is ecologically the right thing to do, besides being cheaper too, he said. When asked why the other champagne producers had not taken the step so far, he smiled and said, ‘they will follow; I am sure one day we will have similar bottles used by most producers.’
Very conscientious about the carbon footprints, Drappier invested in a French company in India making wind turbines that helped Drappier achieve zero carbon foot prints. Earlier, the Domaine had received an organic accreditation for a large portion of the vineyards in 2014.
A man in love with India, Michel Drappier was here last week, pouring the flagship Carte d’Or from the 8 liter Methuselah at the Taj Falaknuma dinner on the first day on 24th Mach followed by the vintage champagne Grande Sendrée Brut 2008 (served in April 2016 at the State Dinner for PM Narendra Modi in Paris) before the memorable dinner at 101 Falaknuma on 25th March. Of course, we tasted the champagne from his new bottle at the Taj Mansingh dinner on 26th.
Michel Drappier is a man on the move. His quest for organic and sustainable wine making makes him an important link with quality champagne made from the best practices and Indian consumers more and more of whom appear to be patronising Drappier champagne.
The current visit and the Herculean task being carried out by his importer made him promise to come to India more often. There may not be so much business for Drappier with the strong competition, but that does not bother or deter him. He wants Indians to drink champagne and have an opportunity to taste his champagne Drappier on its own merit.
With the hard work, passion to excel and make sustainable farming with zero carbon foot prints, quality and pricing of the Drappier champagne, he is very likely to succeed.
Subhash Arora |