Champagne Bruno Paillard
Family owned and independent maison de Champagne
Created in Reims in 1981, Maison Bruno Paillard was born from the desire of its founder to create a very pure champagne, extracted from the inimitable chalky typicity of Champagne region. Bruno Paillard, aesthete and entrepreneur, has shaped a singular taste with patience, sometimes going against the ideas of his time in order to bring to the amateurs the promise of a flawless quality. Today, his daughter, Alice, follows in his footsteps and passionately cultivates the spirit of rigor that is so characteristic of the House, whose wines are only distributed in wine shops and on fine tables.
The vineyard, in the respect of the living
At the roots of Champagne region, the fruit of Bruno Paillard’s know-how is spread over 30 hectares of vines, 17 of which are Grand Cru and Premier Cru.
It completes and diversifies its supplies by purchasing grapes from faithful winegrowers who have been attached to the family spirit for over 30 years.
A sustainable cultivation philosophy
Bruno Paillard has always had a deep respect for nature and the different soil profiles: no weed-killers, partial grassing of the soil and certified organic amendments. The care of the soil is brought in each daily act of the vineyard team thus supporting biodiversity and a deep root development.
Art & Bruno Paillard
An exemplary commitment
“If I hadn’t created a Champagne house, I might not have been a great painter because I’m not sure I have this talent, but I would have liked to be a gallery owner. I chose another path and as far as painting is concerned, I am content to be an amateur who wanders his eye and who, from time to time, is moved.”
Bruno Paillard is a lover of art, which he approaches in a very personal way. For example, he remains insensitive to the art that aggresses as to the art that testifies, currents very appreciated today. “If art is simply a paving stone in the pond – there are many other ways to be questioned in the daily life – this form does not interest me.
According to me, he summarizes clearly, the art proceeds of a double approach, aesthetic – even if this step is despised – and emotional “.
For, in reference to his own culture, he must first find something beautiful in a work, against the grain of the dominant discourse in the matter. “I know that this is not the current meaning of the term,” he smiles. “It is however my way of cohabiting and living with it. Because I like to let myself be seized by art.”
Bruno Paillard is convinced that art brings a lot of happiness. On the condition of letting himself be invaded a little. Without preconceived ideas.
Art and Champagne, an obvious marriage
“Champagne is above all a wine of blend: the winemaker can marry the grape varieties between them as well as the vintages and years and the three together, in multiple combinations. The realization of the blends is, in itself, an artistic step, a creation. This rule of blending has its exceptions: “Blanc de Noirs” or “Blanc de Blancs” Champagnes made from a single grape variety or vintage Champagnes made from a single year, whether they are single-vineyard or blends of multiple origins and grape varieties. In short, if we consider blending as the thesis of Champagne, these exceptions are the antitheses. The one that interests us here is the third of these Champagne exceptions, the vintage. By the nature of the climate, it is different from one year to another. The winemaker can choose to erase these differences between vintages. On the other hand, he may prefer to underline these differences. For my part, I chose the second way: to insist on the true characteristics of the year. The synthesis is there, it is the rule and the exception. And quite an art!”
This enthusiast followed his dream when he created his house ex nihilo at the end of the twentieth century, in 1981.
“It is therefore an absolutely contemporary house. Of course I am not the inventor of the blend technique. But what is blend? It’s nothing more than the painter’s palette on which you mix and apply the colors with your brush in order to obtain the exact shade you want. So there is a phase in our work that is a creation. The composition of the vintages, the blending, are for me art! The test tube is in a way the canvas of the artist who is the blender.”
Thus, for him, Champagne is art on a daily basis. Painters also work on a daily basis. “Why not create a bridge between the two?” Bruno Paillard wanted to personalize his vintages and express their nature on the bottle label. Not only by the regulatory information considered a bit austere but by a graphic message. A message that can be understood by the initiated, but also subconsciously assimilated by all others. When, after tasting the vintage, the theme has been chosen, Bruno Paillard thinks about the artists who could graphically translate the chosen theme. He may be touched by the work or by the artist, often and successively by both. The result is a unique gallery-house, with a variety of works, whose richness is nourished by its diversity.
Thus from painting to painting, the history of the great years in Champagne is written in this contemporary place imagined by an amateur, who feels in solidarity with the artists of his time. An exemplary commitment.
Bruno Paillard
Contact
Avenue de Champagne
51 100 Reims – France info@brunopaillard.com www.champagnebrunopaillard.com