Réserve Perpétuelle, the Philipponnat Identity
‘Réserve Perpétuelle’: this is the new name of our Royale Réserve cuvées. By changing the name of our essential Brut Non Millésimé cuvée to ‘Réserve Perpétuelle’, the House is portraying the wine more accurately in two ways. Firstly, the new name reflects our blending method and the way Champagne Philipponnat manages its reserve wines. Secondly, it symbolises the desire for constant progress that has always guided the House and is the inspiration behind its motto: “In perpetual motion, naturally.”
Our art of blending non-vintage cuvées is based on a very special skill: that of the Réserve Perpétuelle. This practice, which transcends time, has become the House’s philosophy: constant renewal, in perpetual motion. Every year since 1946, Champagne Philipponnat has blended wines from the new harvest with a proportion of the previous year’s blend. This Réserve Perpétuelle process consists of a cycle of perpetually repeated blends. The term thus refers to both the new blend and the part of it that is retained for subsequent blends.
The wine put into reserve is itself processed in two complementary ways: part of it is incorporated into the following year’s cuvée, and another feeds the slower-rotating ‘Réserve Essentielle’. The Réserve Perpétuelle and Réserve Essentielle are both aged in wooden barrels. Successive blends give the resulting patina a cumulative character while preserving the freshness of the wines: the oldest ones are constantly rejuvenated and become increasingly complex.
Blending in Champagne is an art: making non-vintage wines, blended year by year, requires exacting standards and precise knowledge of each of the crus tasted, as well as the ability to think ahead, so that the blend of different crus produces the wines as they were imagined. With this new name, ‘Réserve Perpétuelle’, Philipponnat is expressing the importance of blending and the quest for perfection.
