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Maison Penet-Chardonnet Winery Guide

Cellar Tours Insight — Since 2003, Cellar Tours has planned private wine journeys through the world’s leading wine regions, pairing tailor-made itineraries with VIP winery visits, fine dining, and expert regional guidance.

Winery Overview

A delightful reference for boutique, handcrafted Champagne, Penet-Chardonnet is today one of the region’s most dynamic and exciting small producers. Using only the finest Grand Cru vineyards in select sites across the Champagne region, winemaker Alexandre crafts gastronomic, complex Champagnes for real aficionados. Make no mistake; these are fine wines in their own right and not simply quaffable, celebratory standbys.

Penet-Chardonnet is the story of two families brought together by fate and marriage. Indeed, both families boast a long history of vine growing in Champagne, the Penets acquiring their vines in the town of Verzy during the French Revolution of the 19th century. The Penet family started to make their own Champagnes in 1951 when they purchased Mumm’s 19th-century cellars. Pursuing separate paths for many decades, the house of Penet-Chardonnet was created in 1967 when Christian Penet married Marie-Louise Chardonnet. A great name in Champagne was born!

Christian wasted no time modernizing the estate and built a new winery in the 1980s, still in use today. Christian retired in 2009, succeeded by his genial and competent son, Alexandre. He represents the fifth generation to run the house, and with a background in business and now a degree in enology, he is well qualified to carry on his father’s brilliant work.

Today, at the heart of Penet-Chardonnet’s approach is a dedication to terroir, above all else. Alexandre believes that a house’s job is to bring each vineyard to its fullest expression, which reaches its apogee with his range of superlative single-vineyard Champagnes. Moreover, Penet blocks the softening malolactic fermentation and insists on low dosage (sugar) levels, making his Champagnes the connoisseur’s choice for dinner. Indeed, to open these wonderful wines as an aperitif would be a crying shame; instead, they pair very well with a diverse range of dishes, including shellfish, foie gras, freshwater fish, and fowl. Then, there’s the prestige cuvée, Diane Claire, undoubtedly one of the region’s unsung gems! It’s a gorgeous, complex, and racy Champagne that would make even Dom Perignon proud.

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Further Reading

Author

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James Lawrence

With a passion for food & drink that verges on the obsessive, wine writer James Lawrence has traveled the world in search of the perfect tipple. To date, nothing has surpassed the 1952 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva, tasted in the cobweb-filled cellars with owner María José. Meanwhile, James has been writing for a wide variety of publications for over 12 years, including Telegraph, Decanter, Harpers, The Drinks Business, and Wine Business International. He lives in South Wales and returns to his former university city, Bilbao, as much as possible.

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