Drappier Masterclass at La Fête New York

Four glasses, four oak regimes: Hugo Drappier brings foudre, demi-muid, full oak vinification and an oak egg into focus at Pier Sixty on October 17, 2026. The one-hour Drappier Champagne masterclass gives you a precise way to taste how vessel, time and place shape Champagne, with Peter Liem moderating.

Exclusive members discount for La Fête New York

• 18% discount on the New York Magnum Package, Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner
• Members price: $1,350 + tax (regular package price: $1,650 + tax). Save $300 per package.
• What you get: One ticket to the New York Grand Tasting and one ticket to the Gala Dinner.
• Discount code: PEARL. The booking link includes the code.
• How to book: Book the New York Magnum Package.

This offer applies only to the Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner package. Other dinners and masterclasses are ticketed separately. Taxes and any applicable fees are shown at checkout.

The Drappier Champagne masterclass at Pier Sixty

The Drappier masterclass runs from 10:00am to 11:00am ET on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at Pier Sixty in Chelsea, New York. Tickets cost $125 plus tax, so book this separately from the Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner package if the oak-focused session is your priority. Oenologist Hugo Drappier, an eighth-generation member of the Drappier family, will present the wines, with Peter Liem moderating.

The four announced wines are Coteaux Champenois Perpétuité, Trop M’en Faut NV, Grande Sendrée 2015 and Éclose 2012. Together they set up a comparison of four oak approaches. Exact wines and vintages are subject to change.

The masterclass takes place on the final morning of La Fête du Champagne’s October 14 to 17 New York program.

How oak shapes the Drappier wines

The tasting compares wine aged in a large oak foudre, demi-muid barrels, full oak vinification and aging, and an oak egg. Listen for how vessel size, shape and aging time change texture, motion and the sense of reserve in the glass.

Coteaux Champenois Perpétuité is a still blanc de noirs from Champagne. Its perpetual reserve combines twenty vintages aged in a large oak foudre.

Trop M’en Faut NV is an organic, single-plot cuvée made from Fromonteau. It ages in demi-muid barrels made from oak sourced in the Forêt d’Orient.

Grande Sendrée 2015 is a single-plot vintage cuvée, entirely vinified and aged in oak before ten years on the lees. Éclose 2012 spent three years in an oak egg, followed by a decade of lees maturation.

The four announced Drappier wines

Coteaux Champenois Perpétuité introduces the perpetual reserve through a still wine. Taste it beside the sparkling cuvées for a clearer view of oak, aging and texture without the frame of bubbles.

Trop M’en Faut NV adds a less familiar grape to the comparison. Its Fromonteau fruit and demi-muid aging distinguish it from the other wines in the tasting.

Grande Sendrée 2015 combines a single vineyard, oak vinification and aging, and ten years on the lees. Use it as the bridge between the perpetual reserve and the oak-egg cuvée.

Éclose 2012 comes from the Sendré plot and was aged in an oak egg. Drappier began the oak-egg project in 2010, and Éclose’s first release followed in spring 2026. If you have one question ready for Hugo Drappier, ask how that vessel affects the wine.

The Aube perspective behind the cellar choices

Founded in 1808, Champagne Drappier is based in the Aube, in southern Champagne. Pinot Noir plays a central role in the house’s wines.

The selection reflects Drappier’s range of cellar work: a perpetual reserve in foudre, an organic single-plot wine aged in demi-muids, a vintage cuvée aged in oak and on the lees, and an oak-egg experiment.

That range gives the hour more bite than a standard prestige-cuvée tasting. You are not merely comparing labels. You are comparing philosophies of containment. Does wood preserve memory across twenty vintages? Does local oak amplify a local grape? Does full oak vinification serve a single-plot vintage wine differently from extended lees aging after an egg-shaped élevage? These are cellar questions, but they lead back to the glass.

For the oenophile traveler, the session could sharpen the next visit to the Aube. It gives you better questions to ask in Urville or anywhere south of the Marne where growers and houses work outside the familiar Champagne circuit. The point is not to decide whether oak is good or bad in Champagne. That debate is too blunt. Drappier’s lineup suggests that oak is a tool whose meaning changes with size, shape, origin and duration.

What to listen for in the Drappier masterclass

One useful way to approach the tasting is comparatively. Put Coteaux Champenois Perpétuité beside Grande Sendrée 2015 in your mind, even if they appear at different moments in the sequence. One is a still blanc de noirs shaped by a perpetual reserve in a large foudre containing twenty vintages. The other is a single-plot vintage Champagne, entirely vinified and aged in oak, then given ten years on the lees. Both involve time, but they organize it differently.

Then compare Trop M’en Faut NV with Éclose 2012. Trop M’en Faut ties place to both plant material and vessel, with Fromonteau from a single organic plot and demi-muids made from Forêt d’Orient oak. Éclose 2012 ties place to the Sendré plot and to a vessel whose cornerless form allowed gentle motion for three years before a decade on lees. One speaks through local oak and rare grape identity; the other through form, movement and long maturation.

If you keep notes, make them structural rather than florid. Four columns will do: wine, site or reserve, vessel, time. Under Coteaux Champenois Perpétuité, write still Coteaux Champenois, blanc de noirs, perpetual reserve, large oak foudre, twenty vintages. Under Trop M’en Faut NV, write organic, single-plot, Fromonteau, demi-muid, Forêt d’Orient oak. Under Grande Sendrée 2015, write single-plot vintage cuvée, oak vinification and aging, ten years on lees. Under Éclose 2012, write Sendré plot, oak egg, gentle motion for three years, decade on lees.