Bruno Paillard launches Assemblage 2015 with ‘elan’

Champagne Bruno Paillard has released its Assemblage 2015, the expression of a “solar” year, which stands in stark contrast to the wet conditions that plagued this region’s most recent growing season.

“2024 was a challenging year to work,” began Alice Paillard, now head of the house founded by her father Bruno in 1982. “I’ve seen years with more violent mildew in the past in some specific areas but I had never seen a year with such mildew everywhere in Champagne.”

Although noting that a dry, sunny period from late August until mid-September was “just brilliant”, Paillard highlighted the challenging harvest conditions after that point. “In the last week [of September] we had a month’s rain,” she observed.

Paillard highlighted the particularly high quality of the house’s “very deep, very harmonious” Pinot Noir in 2024. “Ideally if I had had one more week for the Chardonnay I would have had a little bit of something extra,” she admitted, “but I don’t regret picking.”

Introducing the Assemblage 2015 in London this week, Paillard emphasised the “completely unstable” approach to producing a Bruno Paillard vintage expression. “There are some points engraved in marble,” she conceded. “We use exclusively the first pressing, fine terroirs and have a long period after disgorgement, but there are no limits. Sometimes it’s all grand cru, sometimes not. They will be released to embody that special thing the vintage has to say.”

To emphasise this individual character of each vintage, the house commissions a different artist to design its label on the theme that best encapsulates the wine’s personality. For the Bruno Paillard Blanc de Blancs 2014, released earlier this year, that theme was “gourmand”; for the new Assemblage 2015 it is “élan”.

“It has the idea of movement, but there is something compact in this 2015,” explained Paillard, who tracked down the reclusive artist Gérard Titus-Carmel, “a young man of 83 years old”, to design the label.

As with 2024, Paillard suggested that the overall reputation of 2015 does not paint the full picture. “2015 is often characterised as a solar vintage with a lot of light, which is true, but it was more than that,” she insisted. “We had 10 weeks in a row without rain – early spring to mid-August.” Following in the wake of a wet winter, this dry spell affected vines very differently depending on their location. “In 2015 you could really see where the water reserves were,” remarked Paillard. “I didn’t see stress on our vines; I saw very progressive development.”

A blend of 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, the Assemblage 2015 was disgorged in 2022 then left a further two years prior to release in keeping with the house’s policy of allowing wines time to recover from the “operation” of disgorgement. “For me it’s very much on its spices now,” remarked Paillard, “but fresh spices: ginger, paprika, nutmeg and cinnamon.”

In keeping with Bruno Paillard’s high-end on-trade focus, the new release will be sold primarily though restaurants, although small quantities are also available from specialist retailers including Hedonism Wines and The Whisky Exchange, with an RRP of £85.

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