From Tours-sur-Marne to the world: 200 years of family history
Maison Laurent-Perrier was founded in 1812 by André-Michel Pierlot in Tours-sur-Marne – a Grand Cru village in the heart of Champagne, located at the crossroads of the region's three most important growing areas. After Pierlot's son Alphonse, his cellar master Eugène Laurent took over the business. When Eugène Laurent passed away early in 1887, his widow Mathilde-Emilie Perrier continued to run the house and gave it the double name that remains valid today: Veuve Laurent-Perrier.
The decisive turning point came in 1939, when Marie-Louise de Nonancourt acquired the house. Her son Bernard de Nonancourt took over management in 1948 – at just 28 years old, after a hard apprenticeship in the vineyards. At that time, the house employed around twenty people and sold 80,000 bottles. Under his leadership, Laurent-Perrier grew into the third-largest Champagne house and the largest family-owned company in all of Champagne. Today, Bernard's daughters Alexandra Pereyre and Stéphanie Meneux de Nonancourt continue to lead the legacy – Laurent-Perrier thus remains one of the few truly independent large houses in Champagne.
Craftsmanship with conviction: vineyard and cellar
Bernard de Nonancourt's guiding principle was: "Quality of the wines, quality of the people." This philosophy shapes the house to this day. Laurent-Perrier produces exclusively Champagne – no secondary range, no diversification. The grapes come from carefully selected sites in the Côte des Blancs and the Montagne de Reims; Chardonnay forms the aromatic basis of most cuvées. None of the base wines mature in wooden barrels, which stylistically ensures the freshness and precision of the house.
Since 1998, Laurent-Perrier has held the Royal Warrant of the British royal family – the first Champagne house ever to do so. Continuity in the cellar is no coincidence: since 1948, the house has had only three Chefs de Cave, which stands for extraordinary stylistic consistency.
La Cuvée, Rosé, and Grand Siècle: a range with a clear signature
Freshness, elegance, and purity – these three terms run through the entire range. The La Cuvée Brut, built at its core on Chardonnay, is the precise, citrus-fresh entry into the house. The Cuvée Rosé Brut is one of the boldest innovations in Champagne: since 1968, it has been vinified exclusively from 100% Pinot Noir from ten Grand Cru sites of the Montagne de Reims – including Bouzy and Ambonnay – with a maceration technique of 48 to 72 hours. Unlike most houses, which produce rosé champagne by blending with red wine, Laurent-Perrier extracts color and aromas directly from the grape skins – this results in a lively red-fruit character, silky texture, and a precise acid structure. Finally, the flagship Grand Siècle is never a vintage wine, but always a blend of three complementary harvest years from the twelve best Grand Cru sites – a concept that identifies Laurent-Perrier as the house of assemblage par excellence. With the Brut Millésimé, on the other hand, the house relies on extraordinary single vintages when terroir and weather permit.
