News at RareWine Invest: The NV Champagne Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle Shows Great Potential

(This article has been updated 20 July 2023)

Laurent-Perrier Pioneers With NV Prestige Cuvée

Champagne Laurent-Perrier is a recognised and respected Champagne house with a rich history dating back to 1812. The house was founded by André Michel Pierlot and was later passed on to his son, Alphonse Pierlot. Then to his grandson, Eugène Laurent, who gave the company its current name.

Through diligence, skill and innovation, Laurent-Perrier has built a reputation for producing high-quality Champagne and has developed the business from selling around 80,000 bottles in the 1940s to becoming a powerhouse with an annual production of around seven million bottles. Laurent-Perrier was even the first to introduce a zero dosage Champagne and one of the very first to implement the use of steel tanks for fermentation in the 1950s - a method that has since become the rule rather than the exception.

But it is not only here that Laurent-Perrier has been a pioneer. Laurent-Perrier was also the first to present a multi-vintage prestige cuvée - it is almost unheard of to have a prestige cuvée, a flagship wine, based on more than one vintage.

The name is Grand Siegle Iteration, and it is exactly the one that we will take a closer look at here.

What Is Grand Siecle Iteration?

Grand Siecle is something as unconventional as a prestige cuvée based on several vintages, and it is thus technically not to be described as a vintage Champagne.

According to Laurent-Perrier, the idea of the Grand Siecle is based on the observation that nature will probably never grant us the perfect oenological year. With the art of blending multiple vintages, Laurent-Perrier wants to create one through each new iteration of previous vintages.

Grand Siecle's composition is based on three principles that today have become immutable:

1. A blend of three exceptional years that complement each other.
2. A blend with a predominance of Chardonnay complemented by Pinot Noir and selected from 11 of the 17 existing Grand Cru vineyards in Champagne.
3. A blend that has benefited from more than 10 years of maturation in the cellars.

The first Grand Siecle was composed of vintages 1955, 1953 and 1952, but it was only with the 22nd edition (based on 2004, 2002 and 1999) that they actually made a virtue of differentiating the bottles and printing the edition number.

This is Grand Siecle No. 25 - based on the majestic 2008 vintage, blended with the 2007 and 2006 vintages.

As a side note, the three most significant critics do not fully agree on the share of 2008 vintage in this blend. Richard Juhlin states up to 65% 2008, Wine Advocate states 55% and Vinous 60%. Despite this curious disagreement, the point about a base on vintage 2008 is clear.

You can explore the different versions for yourself right here on Grand Siecle's own website.

Sublime Blended Champagne

The above is almost blasphemous and written with a twinkle in the eye. True, the Grand Siecle is technically a non-vintage Champagne, blended from three vintages, but it reaches a level where, apart from a few wines from Krug, there are no equals in the category.

This is how critics rate the last five editions of Grand Siecle:

In addition, there is an interesting observation. William Kelley, the Wine Advocate's Champagne Specialist, has tasted Grand Siecle No. 25 a full four times and despite a very good start, it seems to be developing better than his expectations. It is rare for a wine to be re-rated multiple times and it is even rarer that we see this evolution as the scoring also takes future potential into account:

1^st tasting: June 2020 - 95+

2^nd tasting: March 2021 - 96

3^rd Tasting: October 2021 - 96+

4^th Tasting: August 2022 - 97

To put the level in perspective, the starting point is Krugs Grande Cuvée 164. Edition - a wine popularly referred to as the world's best non-vintage Champagne. The 164. Edition is also blended on a base of 2008 vintage and scores 96 points from both Richard Juhlin and Wine Advocate and 97 from Vinous, giving an average of 96.3 points. Here, Grand Siecle is one measly point in a conservative Vinous rating from the same average score - against a wine that costs more than 2.5 times as much at best.

How Much Is Produced?

Like any other proud Champagne house, Laurent-Perrier also keeps details about the scale of production to themselves, but the following is a little break down to help with perspective: Laurent-Perrier reportedly produces in the region of seven million bottles of Champagne a year. The house has seven different Champagnes in their core portfolio, from semi-sweet to zero dosage and NV to vintage. As with any house, we must assume that the NV Champagnes, such as their La Cuvée, take up by far the most space in this equation, while the vintage Champagnes take up less.

Grand Siecle is somewhere between NV and vintage Champagne and is based on the 2008, 2007 and 2006 vintages, all of which are also made as vintage Champagnes on their own. As a producer, do you want to save unnecessarily much vintage Champagne, which is a core product, to make a blend? And will a producer produce the prestige product in unnecessarily high volumes?

In addition, another small observation that can give an idea of the size of the production: The cheapest price on wine-searcher.com for a 2008 Laurent-Perrier is currently around € 61*. Your investment price in Grand Siecle is € 115. Here it is not difficult to interpret conclusions about prestige, supply, and demand.

*Price per bottle ex. duty, tax, and VAT, in whole cases and perfect condition.

Is Non-Vintage Champagne Suitable For Investment?

No, it is not. But there is always the exception that proves the rule, and this is one of them. What makes Grand Siecle special in this perspective is that it is a specified product like a vintage Champagne. When the last Grand Siecle No. 25 is released and drunk, that is it - there will be no more and no more can ever be produced.

The historical data base for the price development of Grand Siecle from Liv-ex is rather thin and is actually limited to No. 22 and No. 24, which over the last two years have seen price increases of 30,1% and 25,6% respectively. However, wine-searcher.com supports this development for the other numbered Grand Siecle based on average offer prices.

If we are to explore the potential of Grand Siecle and NV Champagne further, it is again interesting to look at Krug Grande Cuvée 164. Edition. The cheapest price on wine-searcher.com for this is currently €301^*, which underlines that NV Champagne is not by definition cheap Champagne.

But the price has not always been at that level. In fact, since its release in the summer of 2017, the average offer price on wine-searcher.com has increased by €211 %. This corresponds to an average annual increase of around 21%.

This puts not only the NV investment in an interesting light, but also the Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle No. 25 with a price tag of just €115^*

*Price per bottle ex. duty, tax, and VAT, in whole cases and perfect condition

RareWine Invest's Opinion

Investing in non-vintage Champagne is not something we have done much in, and it has really been limited to Krug Grande Cuvée. But that is changing, and not only because the prospects for Champagne investment look extremely interesting, but also because we have identified potential in Laurent-Perrier's prestige cuvée Grand Siecle.

On a base of the 2008 vintage, Laurent-Perrier has presented a Champagne on such a sublime level that it can compete with most prestige cuvées from the best houses. There is no doubt that we are dealing with the flagship wine of the house and probably the best version ever released.

Available data also testifies to nice price increases, while the qualitatively comparable Krug Grande Cuvée 164. Edition both testifies to what NV Champagne can cost and how much Champagne you get for your money at Grand Siecle No. 25, where you currently save more than 60% compared to the cheapest 164. Edition on wine-searcher.com.

The potential is obvious.