Drappier Éclose 2012 Prestige

A first for Champagne

Éclose 2012 is a vintage prestige cuvée from Drappier, vinified and aged in an egg-shaped (ovum) oak cask made by the cooperage Taransaud. The format has been used in still-wine cellars in Bordeaux, the Rhône and elsewhere — but never before in Champagne. Drappier owns three of the vessels; each holds 2,500 litres and yields around 3,000 bottles per release.

How it's made

The blend is 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay, drawn from the Grande Sendrée parcel at Urville on Kimmeridgian chalk — the same geological band as Chablis, about 150 km south of Reims. The 2012 base wine fermented and matured in the ovum for three years under fine lees before bottling in 2015, then spent ten further years on the lees in bottle and was disgorged in April 2025 with a 4 g/L dosage (extra-brut by the regulator but well inside the maison's brut-nature register at release).

The egg shape was chosen for its effect on the wine itself: the curved interior keeps fine lees in convective suspension throughout maturation, smoothing texture and lifting aromatic depth without the angular extraction associated with traditional oak barrels.

Release cadence

Michel Drappier waited sixteen years between commissioning the first Taransaud egg in 2010 and presenting Éclose 2012 in 2026 ("J'ai attendu 16 ans pour ça"). The plan from here is one release every three vintages, conditions permitting — the 2015 is the next slated harvest. Éclose 2012 carries a price positioning in line with the upper tier of Drappier's prestige range (Grande Sendrée, Charles de Gaulle) and is sold in markedly limited allocations through specialist channels.