This is the house’s artist label release: each year an artist is especially commissioned to create a painting to feature on the label.
Ever since Bruno Paillard released his first vintage Champagne – from the year 1981 – he commissioned an artist to create a painting to feature on the label. Paillard chooses the theme and for 2012 vintage of Assemblage he decided on sillon, French for furrow, “to represent the deep and concentrated internal character of the wine.” The honour of painting went to French artist Claude Viallat. He is famous for “his relentless exploration of the repetition on shape,” Paillard explains.
While 2012 is remembered for its warm summer, it was not an easy year: spring frosts and hail storms reduced yields, so did difficult flowering, but warm and even hot August weather saved the vintage and brought forth “exceptional” quality.
Assemblage is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, a fifth of the base wine was fermented in oak barrels and the wine aged for eight years on lees and a further year after disgorgement when it received an extra brut dosage of just 4.5g/l.
