N.V. Besserat de Bellefon Cuvee des Moines Blanc de Blancs

Besserat de Bellefon was founded in 1843 by Edmond Besserat, who called his Champagne domaine Besserat Champagne. When one of his grandsons married the daughter of another prominent Champagne-making family in 1927, the name was changed to Besserat de Bellefon to reflect the marriage of a Besserat to a Bellefon. The Epernay estate is today part of the Bruno Paillard group of Champagne estates and it produces about 40,000 cases annually. Champagnes produced include vintage and non vintage. Bruno Paillard is known for having started his own Champagne house in 1981 when he was only 27. He has since acquired other Champagne houses while earning a reputation for crafting fine Champagnes.

Champagne is a small, beautiful wine growing region northeast of Paris whose famous name is misused a million times a day. As wine enthusiasts and all French people are well aware, only sparkling wines produced in Champagne from grapes grown in Champagne can be called Champagne. Sparkling wines produced anywhere else, including in other parts of France, must be called something besides Champagne. Champagne producers are justifiably protective of their wines and the prestige associated with true Champagne. Though the region was growing grapes and making wines in ancient times, it began specializing in sparkling wine in the 17th century, when a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon formulated a set guidelines to improve the quality of the local sparkling wines. Despite legends to the contrary, Dom Pérignon did not “invent” sparkling wine, but his rules about aggressive pruning, small yields and multiple pressings of the grapes were widely adopted, and by the 18th and 19th centuries Champagne had become the wine of choice in fashionable courts and palaces throughout Europe. Today there are 75,000 acres of vineyards in Champagne growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Champagne’s official appellation system classifies villages as Grand Cru or Premier Cru, though there are also many excellent Champagnes that simply carry the regional appellation. Along with well-known international Champagne houses there are numerous so-called “producer Champagnes,” meaning wines made by families who, usually for several or more generations, have worked their own vineyards and produced Champagne only from their own grapes.