Laurent-Perrier Champagne Guide | Every Bottle Explained

Laurent-Perrier is one of those Champagne houses everybody recognises but surprisingly few people really understand. You’ve probably seen the pale-green La Cuvée bottle at a wedding. You’ve definitely seen that extraordinary pink Rosé bottle somewhere involving linen tablecloths. And if you spend too much time around Champagne obsessives, somebody will eventually start talking about Grand Siècle “Iterations” as though they’re discussing vintage Ferraris. So let me put my cards on the table before we go any further, because it shapes everything that follows.

I don’t like rosé Champagne. I’ve tried, honestly, and it never quite lands for me; there’s something about pink fizz that always feels like a compromise between two better drinks. Which makes what I’m about to say slightly annoying: Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé is the best of them, by a distance, and I’ll explain why below with as much grace as I can muster. But it isn’t the reason I keep coming back to this house. The reason is everything else. Laurent-Perrier’s back vintages, the Brut Millésimés from good years, and the core Champagnes, La Cuvée, Héritage, the Brut Natures and above all Grand Siècle, are simply heaven. They are, for my money, some of the purest, freshest, most quietly serious Champagne being made anywhere, and 2026 has turned into a rather good year to say so, because the house has just released the best Grand Siècle in years and only its 32nd vintage since 1950. If you want the whole field, my best Champagne guide covers it. This is the deep dive on one house.

Quite a lot, actually. The biggest release is Grand Siècle Iteration N°27, the latest version of the prestige Champagne, combining the 2015, 2013 and 2012 vintages (65%, 25% and 10%) at roughly 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir, drawn from eight Grand Cru villages. And the critics have gone slightly bonkers for it: Robb Report named it Champagne of the Year, James Suckling gave it 99 points, Jeb Dunnuck 98, and Jancis Robinson 18.5+ out of 20. That makes this a particularly useful moment to understand Grand Siècle, because unlike Dom Pérignon, Cristal or almost any other prestige Champagne, Laurent-Perrier deliberately refuses to make its flagship from a single vintage. More on that madness shortly.

The house has also released Brut Millésimé 2018, which is the bit I’m most excited about: it’s only the 32nd vintage Laurent-Perrier has declared since 1950, which means from 75 harvests the house has bottled a vintage just 32 times. That restraint is exactly why the back vintages are so good. The 2018 is 58% Chardonnay and 42% Pinot Noir, no oak, full malolactic, seven years on the lees. Then there’s Héritage, the all-reserve-wine cuvée, which has been picking up serious medals. The commercial numbers are interesting too: while the global Champagne market shrank 1.6% by volume, Laurent-Perrier grew volumes 3.8% and Champagne sales 4.2% to €294.8 million in its 2025/26 year. People may be drinking slightly less Champagne. They are apparently not drinking less Laurent-Perrier. It also became a WSET Gold Partner in January 2026, a three-year deal with the world’s best-known wine-education body. So this is not a brand quietly living on a label designed forty years ago. There’s a great deal going on.

Yes. That was easy. But the more useful answer is that Laurent-Perrier has a very recognisable style, and it happens to be exactly the style I want from Champagne. If Bollinger tends toward richness, Pinot Noir and toast, Laurent-Perrier lives at the other end of the spectrum: freshness, citrus, white flowers, clean fruit, acidity and Chardonnay. That doesn’t make it automatically better. It makes it different, and that house style has been built deliberately over decades. Laurent-Perrier has long been unusually enthusiastic about Chardonnay, stainless-steel fermentation (Michel Fauconnet was so afraid of oxidation he had his tanks made without a single seam), reserve-wine blending, rosé maceration and zero-dosage Champagne. The result is that even its most serious bottles never feel heavy. The word the house uses repeatedly is freshness. For once, the marketing department has picked the correct word, and it’s the reason I’d happily drink La Cuvée before dinner and Grand Siècle with it, without either feeling like liquid Christmas pudding.

Now let’s open the bottles, and I’ll be honest about which ones I actually reach for.

Style: Brut NV  ·  Blend: 50%+ Chardonnay, 30 to 35% Pinot Noir, 10 to 15% Meunier  ·  Reserve wines: 15 to 30%  ·  Ageing: ~4 years

La Cuvée is the house’s calling card. It uses more than 50% Chardonnay blended from over a hundred crus, with 15 to 30% reserve wines, and spends around four years ageing before release. That high Chardonnay proportion tells you almost everything about what Laurent-Perrier is trying to achieve: lemon, white flowers, apple, light brioche and a clean finish, rather than something enormously rich or nutty. It’s why La Cuvée works so well as an aperitif; you can drink it before dinner without feeling as though somebody has handed you a glass of liquid Christmas pudding.

My verdictIf you’ve never had Laurent-Perrier, start here. Not because it’s the best wine they make, but because it teaches you the house style, and it’s a genuinely lovely glass in its own right.

Style: Brut Rosé NV  ·  Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir  ·  Method: Maceration, 48 to 72 hours on skins  ·  Ageing: ~5 years  ·  Created: 1968

This is the celebrity, and here’s where my bias becomes relevant. I don’t drink rosé Champagne by choice; I’d take the La Cuvée over almost any pink bottle you put in front of me. So take it as the reluctant compliment it is when I say Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé is the best rosé Champagne I’ve tasted, and the only one I’d order without a sigh. The reason is how it’s made. Most rosé Champagne can legally be produced by blending a little red wine into white; Laurent-Perrier instead uses maceration, leaving 100% Pinot Noir on its skins for around 48 to 72 hours, extracting colour and flavour before fermentation continues. It sounds like a nerdy distinction. You can taste it. Where so many pink Champagnes taste like “Champagne, but pink,” this one tastes of something: raspberry, strawberry, redcurrant and black cherry, vivid and specific, with real fruit rather than a faint blush. It’s the one rosé that stops being a compromise and becomes its own drink. And yes, the bottle is ridiculous. But it’s a very good kind of ridiculous.

Is Laurent-Perrier Rosé sweet?

No, and this confuses a surprising number of people because it’s pink and tastes strongly of ripe red fruit. It’s still a dry Brut Champagne. Fruitiness is not the same thing as sweetness; a strawberry can smell sweeter than a lemon without containing a spoonful of added sugar, and wine works the same way.

Laurent-Perrier Rosé vs Billecart-Salmon Rosé

One of the classic Champagne arguments. Billecart-Salmon is more restrained, delicate and quietly elegant; Laurent-Perrier is more exuberant, more fruit, more colour, more personality. If Billecart is wearing a perfectly tailored navy suit, Laurent-Perrier has turned up in a pink velvet dinner jacket. Neither necessarily looks better. But you know which one entered the room, and, from a man who doesn’t much like the genre, that vividness is precisely why LP wins.

My verdictThe best rosé Champagne there is, from someone who’d still rather drink the white. If you love rosé, this is your bottle. If you don’t, it’s the one most likely to change your mind.

Style: Brut NV  ·  Blend: 55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir  ·  Reserve wines: 100%  ·  Crus: 40, half Grand Cru  ·  Ageing: 4 years minimum

Héritage might be the most interesting Laurent-Perrier for people who already know the obvious bottles, and it’s the one I’d most like to pour for a sceptic. Unlike a normal non-vintage Champagne, the blend is composed entirely of reserve wines; no wine from the latest harvest goes in at all. That’s extremely unusual. Reserve wines are the older wines a house stores to maintain complexity and consistency between releases, and Laurent-Perrier essentially asked: what happens if we make a whole Champagne out of them? The answer, borne out of the Grand Siècle way of thinking, is richer than La Cuvée without abandoning the obsession with freshness: purity and maturity in the same glass. Michel Fauconnet introduced it in 2024 as one of his last acts, and it’s been collecting medals ever since.

My verdictIf you already drink La Cuvée and want to understand what this house can do with age, this is the obvious next bottle, and one of my favourites in the range.

Style: Vintage Brut  ·  Blend: 58% Chardonnay, 42% Pinot Noir  ·  Oak: None, full malolactic  ·  Ageing: 7 years on lees  ·  Significance: Only the 32nd vintage since 1950

Here’s the part of the range I’d fight for. Laurent-Perrier does not release a vintage every year; the 2018, released in 2026, is only the 32nd declared since 1950, which means from 75 harvests the house has said “this one” just 32 times. That restraint is the whole reason the back vintages are so consistently glorious: they only exist in years the house thought had something to say. Olivier Vigneron put it perfectly at the launch: “with our vintages we look for difference, with Grand Siècle we look for continuity.” Where La Cuvée is built for consistency and Grand Siècle blends great years together, Brut Millésimé gives you something much simpler and, to me, more thrilling: one year, with all its character. 2018 was a warm, expressive vintage, “a year with a little more character,” in Vigneron’s words, so expect more ripeness and breadth than the house style might suggest, with Chardonnay from Le Mesnil and Avize keeping it from lumbering into the room in lead boots. If you can find older Millésimés, the 2008, the 2012, the 2007 in magnum, buy them. That’s where Laurent-Perrier stops being very good and becomes heaven.

My verdictThe vintages are the reason I love this house. If you buy one Laurent-Perrier on my say-so, make it a Millésimé from a year you like, and lay a second one down.

Style: Brut Nature, zero dosage  ·  Blend: 55% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir  ·  Ageing: ~6 years  ·  Launched: 1981

Ultra Brut contains no dosage, no sugar mixture added after disgorgement, the style we now call Brut Nature. When Laurent-Perrier launched it in 1981, Brut Nature wasn’t even a formal Champagne category, and this isn’t some recent leap aboard the low-sugar train: the house’s history with dry Champagne goes back to 1889 and a wine called Grand Vin Sans Sucre, made partly to suit British tastes. It’s leaner and more severe than La Cuvée, and utterly clean. If you like razor-sharp Champagne, oysters, sushi, or simply making faces at people who put sugar in things, this is your Laurent-Perrier.

My verdictBracing, honest and ahead of its time by about forty years. A regular in my fridge.

Style: Brut Nature  ·  Grapes: 100% Chardonnay, Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims  ·  Dosage: None  ·  Ageing: ~8 years

Take Laurent-Perrier’s love of Chardonnay. Remove the Pinot Noir. Remove the Meunier. Remove the dosage. Wait eight years. You end up with Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature, which is Laurent-Perrier with the volume turned down and the definition turned up: citrus, white flowers, minerality, chalk, acidity. You’re not buying this because you want Champagne to taste like brioche dunked in cream. You’re buying it because you want something exceptionally clean, and it’s another Fauconnet creation, from 2018.

My verdictThe purest expression of what this house believes in. Precision in a glass.

Style: Prestige cuvée, multi-vintage  ·  Vintages: 2015 (65%), 2013 (25%), 2012 (10%)  ·  Blend: 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir  ·  Source: 8 Grand Cru villages  ·  Ageing: ~9 to 10 years on lees  ·  Dosage: 7g/L

Here is where Laurent-Perrier becomes genuinely fascinating, and where the house makes its argument for immortality. Most prestige Champagnes are tied to one exceptional vintage: Dom Pérignon 2015, Cristal 2016, Krug 2011. Laurent-Perrier looked at the entire concept and effectively said: why should one year get to decide everything? Bernard de Nonancourt believed no single vintage could deliver every quality he wanted, so since 1959 Grand Siècle has blended three great, complementary vintages. The idea isn’t consistency, and it isn’t a normal non-vintage blend. The ambition is much grander: to recreate the perfect vintage, one that never actually existed. I love the arrogance of it.

Every new blend receives an Iteration number, and N°27 is the current release: 65% of the hot, sunny 2015, 25% of 2013 and 10% of 2012, at 60/40 Chardonnay to Pinot Noir, from eight Grand Crus, nine years on the lees, 7g/L dosage. This is Laurent-Perrier’s answer to Cristal, Dom and Krug Grande Cuvée, and N°27 is having a proper moment: Robb Report’s Champagne of the Year, 99 from Suckling, who called it “full-bodied but not at all heavy, turning almost weightless,” 98 from Jeb Dunnuck. Having tasted it, I’d only add that it’s the single bottle that makes the whole house make sense: all the freshness of La Cuvée, all the depth of the back vintages, in one glass.

Is Grand Siècle a vintage Champagne?

No, and that’s the whole point. Three vintages are deliberately blended together. Think of it as Laurent-Perrier arguing that blending multiple exceptional years can produce something greater than letting one year stand alone. Whether you agree or not, it gives Grand Siècle one of the most interesting identities in prestige Champagne, and, as I found with the bottles in The Gentlemen, the vintage on a label is doing more storytelling than most people realise.

My verdictThe bottle that explains Laurent-Perrier. If the back vintages are heaven, this is the cathedral.

Style: Vintage prestige rosé  ·  Blend: 80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay, all Grand Cru  ·  Ageing: ~10 years  ·  Made: Only in exceptional years

Alexandra sits far above Cuvée Rosé in the hierarchy, produced only in years when the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay ripen together, then aged around a decade. Where Cuvée Rosé is joyous and fruit-forward, Alexandra is considerably more serious. It’s the bottle for somebody who says “I prefer vintage rosé” without irony, and, fair enough, if any pink Champagne could convert me, it’s this one. It still hasn’t. But I respect it enormously.

My verdictThe most serious rosé Champagne in the range. Not for me, but if it’s for you, it’s magnificent.

Style: Demi-Sec  ·  Dosage: ~40g/L  ·  Blend: 45%+ Chardonnay, ~40% Pinot Noir, ~15% Meunier

Demi-Sec has fallen badly out of fashion, which is slightly unfair. Harmony carries around 40g/L of dosage, so noticeably more sweetness than Brut. You don’t serve it where you’d serve Ultra Brut; pair it with fruit tarts, pastry, blue cheese or richer dishes. Champagne’s history is full of sweeter styles, and the modern obsession with drinking everything bone-dry is relatively recent. Harmony is less an oddity than a reminder that our grandparents knew what pudding was for.

My verdictStop trying to drink Brut with dessert. This is what it’s for.

Four things worth remembering. Chardonnay: a high proportion across the range, bringing freshness, citrus, florals and acidity. Reserve wines: enormously important, and Héritage takes the obsession to its logical extreme. Pinot Noir maceration: Cuvée Rosé uses skin contact rather than blending, which is why its fruit is so vivid, and why it’s the one rosé that wins over even a non-believer. Brut Nature: the house has championed very dry Champagne for more than a century. Put all four together and the house suddenly makes sense. Laurent-Perrier isn’t trying to make the richest Champagne. It’s trying to make Champagne that still feels alive, which is exactly why its old vintages age so beautifully instead of collapsing into toast.

The house traces its origins to 1812, when André-Michel Pierlot set up in Tours-sur-Marne. His successor passed the business to cellar master Eugène Laurent, and when Laurent died in 1887 his widow, Mathilde-Emilie Perrier, took control. Her name was Perrier. His was Laurent. Champagne branding was considerably more straightforward in the nineteenth century, and the house became Veuve Laurent-Perrier. Then came the figure who matters most: Marie-Louise de Nonancourt bought the house in 1939, and her son Bernard took over in 1948 at just 28, when Laurent-Perrier was tiny. Under Bernard it became one of Champagne’s great international houses: he embraced stainless steel, championed Chardonnay, created Cuvée Rosé and Grand Siècle, and helped pioneer zero dosage. Modern Laurent-Perrier is essentially his creation. The de Nonancourt family remain involved today, the wider group also owns Salon, Delamotte and de Castellane, and it remains one of the very few big houses that is family-controlled and makes only one brand. In 2025, Olivier Vigneron became the fourth cellar master in the house’s history, succeeding Michel Fauconnet after his fifty years there. When a house builds its reputation on blending, the cellar master isn’t just another bloke with an impressive keyring. He’s responsible for preserving the taste of the brand, and Vigneron’s first two releases suggest it’s in safe hands.

Does Laurent-Perrier have a Royal Warrant?

Yes, and a notable one: in 2024 it became the first Champagne house to be awarded a Royal Warrant by HM King Charles III. Royal Warrants are formally granted and listed by the Royal Warrant Holders Association, so this is more than marketing. Does it make the wine better? No. Does it make the bottle in your fridge slightly more smug? Absolutely.

If you’d quite like me to stop explaining Champagne and simply tell you what to buy, here you go. Best overall for most people: La Cuvée, the house style without prestige pricing. Best rosé: Cuvée Rosé, obviously, even from me. Best for Champagne obsessives: Héritage, different enough to be interesting without requiring you to remortgage the dog. Best dry: Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature, for chalk and precision. Best for a splurge: Grand Siècle N°27, the bottle where the philosophy makes complete sense. Best gift: Cuvée Rosé, partly because it tastes good, partly because nobody has ever looked disappointed opening that bottle. Best with dessert: Harmony Demi-Sec. And my personal pick, the one I’d actually buy with my own money: a Brut Millésimé, ideally a back vintage. That’s where this house lives for me. If you’re buying to keep, my guide to how to store Champagne matters more than you’d think, and bottle sizes change the ageing entirely.

If you like toast, richness and structure, lean Veuve or Bollinger; a Bollinger drinker may find La Cuvée restrained, and a Laurent-Perrier drinker may find Bollinger rather enormous. If you like citrus, elegance and freshness, lean Laurent-Perrier. Against Moët Impérial at similar money, I’d gravitate to La Cuvée every time for its focus. And on rosé, Billecart is the navy suit and Laurent-Perrier the pink velvet jacket, which is exactly why “what is the best Champagne?” remains both an excellent Google search and a fundamentally ridiculous question. The wider landscape, including the grower Champagnes that are the real value now and the trends reshaping the region, is covered elsewhere on 12×75.

Don’t freeze it to death: around 8 to 10°C is sensible for La Cuvée and Rosé, and Grand Siècle and the vintages can go slightly warmer so the aromas actually stand a chance of escaping. Use a proper glass; the narrow flute looks glamorous but is hopeless at letting Champagne smell like Champagne, and a small white-wine glass is nearly always better, as I’ve argued in my guide to the right glass for every drink. Because the house style leans fresh, food is easy: La Cuvée with oysters, sushi, shellfish, fried chicken or smoked salmon; Cuvée Rosé with tuna, duck, charcuterie or berries; Héritage with lobster or poultry; the Millésimé with roast chicken, turbot, scallops or veal; Ultra Brut with oysters, sashimi or ceviche; Blanc de Blancs with shellfish, white fish or goat’s cheese; Grand Siècle with lobster, turbot, truffle, or nothing at all; Harmony with fruit tarts, pastry or blue cheese. Champagne is a wine. It doesn’t need to be quarantined until somebody gets married.

Usually, yes. La Cuvée is widely distributed enough that deals appear, and I’d happily buy it whenever it’s priced close to the other major NV houses. Cuvée Rosé commands a premium, partly because making it is more complicated and partly because the bottle has become a luxury object in its own right. The Millésimés are, to my mind, the quiet bargain of the range: vintage Champagne from a house that declares so rarely, at prices well below the prestige tier. And Grand Siècle is expensive, but at least the price buys you something genuinely distinctive rather than a posher label on the standard wine. Prestige Champagne should have an intellectual reason to exist. Grand Siècle does.

Is Laurent-Perrier good Champagne?

Yes. It’s one of Champagne’s major historic houses, family-controlled, and known for a fresh, elegant, Chardonnay-led style. Its vintages and Grand Siècle are among the finest Champagnes made.

Which Laurent-Perrier is best?

For most people, La Cuvée is the best introduction. Grand Siècle is the prestige Champagne and the house’s most ambitious wine. My personal favourites are the Brut Millésimés, especially the back vintages.

What is special about Laurent-Perrier Rosé?

It’s made entirely from Pinot Noir by maceration, 48 to 72 hours on the skins, giving unusually vivid red-fruit character. It’s widely considered the benchmark rosé Champagne, and I’d agree, despite not being a rosé fan.

Is Laurent-Perrier Rosé sweet?

No. It’s a dry Brut Champagne despite its ripe strawberry, raspberry and cherry flavours.

What is Grand Siècle Iteration N°27?

The current release of Laurent-Perrier’s prestige Champagne, blending 2015 (65%), 2013 (25%) and 2012 (10%) at 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir from eight Grand Crus. It was named Robb Report’s Champagne of the Year and scored 99 by James Suckling.

Is Grand Siècle a vintage Champagne?

No. It deliberately blends three vintages to recreate an ideal year that never existed.

Who is Laurent-Perrier’s cellar master?

Olivier Vigneron, who became the fourth cellar master in 2025, succeeding Michel Fauconnet after more than fifty years at the house.

Does Laurent-Perrier have a Royal Warrant?

Yes. In 2024 it became the first Champagne house to hold a Royal Warrant from HM King Charles III.

Is Laurent-Perrier Brut Nature sugar-free?

Ultra Brut and Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature receive no dosage after disgorgement, so no sugar is added, though wine can still contain tiny naturally occurring residual sugar.

BY VIM, EDITOR OF 12×75. Blends, ageing and figures come from Laurent-Perrier and are current as of September 2026; critic scores are those publications’ own. No brand paid for this guide. Please drink responsibly.