Cattier (or Champagne Cattier) is a family-owned

Champagne house The listing below comprises some of the more prominent houses of Champagne. Most of the major houses are members of the organisation ''Union de Maisons de Champagne'' (UMC),Chigny-les-Roses Chigny-les-Roses () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also * Cattier *Communes of the Marne department *Montagne de Reims Regional Natural Park Montagne de Reims Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel ...

, a Premier Cru village of the

Montagne de Reims Montagne de Reims is one of the five sub-regions of the Champagne wine region. It is north of Vallée de la Marne, Côte de Sézanne and Côte des Blancs. The region is located around Reims Mountain, from Reims to Épernay, and contains nine Gran ...

, part of

Champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. The Cattier family has owned vineyards since 1625, and has been running the House for over 13 generations.

Family history

In 1916 Jean Cattier had to leave the battlefront because of a severe war injury. He came back to

Chigny-les-Roses Chigny-les-Roses () is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France. See also * Cattier *Communes of the Marne department *Montagne de Reims Regional Natural Park Montagne de Reims Regional Natural Park (French: ''Parc naturel ...

, where his family had been growing vines since 1625. The city of

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded ...

, besieged by the German army, crumbled under the shells and 60% of the city was destroyed.

merchants were trying to keep a modest activity in these tough conditions, but they couldn't get grapes in the nearby vineyards. In order not to lose his 1916 paltry harvest, Jean Cattier decided to produce his own champagne. The first bottles were released in 1918 to celebrate the end of

WWI World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1936 his son Jean Cattier married Nelly. They had 3 children : Jean-Louis, Liliane and Jean-Jacques. They made the activity grow, shared their passion and then passed the company to their children. Jean-Louis took charge of the vineyard in the early 1960s, after having done his military service in

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. Liliane took care of the office duties and welcomed customers. Jean-Jacques, as an oenologist, was in charge of the wine-making process, and then dealt with the administrative and trade management. In 1951 Jean Cattier acquired the Clos du Moulin, one of the rare historical

clos Clos may refer to: People * Clos (surname) Other uses * CLOS, Command line-of-sight, a method of guiding a missile to its intended target * Clos network, a kind of multistage switching network * Clos (vineyard), a walled vineyard; used in Fran ...

in the

region. He restored this 2.2 hectares parcel that was destroyed during the wars. He produced his first wine out of this parcel in 1952, his first bottling in 1953 and his first sale in 1956. It was, at the time, one of the two

produced and sold in the

region. Jean Cattier was then considered as a precursor for two main reasons : creating a cuvée that was both a

and a prestigious

champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

. In 2011 Alexandre Cattier took over from his father, Jean-Jacques Cattier. He is also an oenologist and, like his father, is passionate about champagne. Alexandre and his cousins, Agathe and Marie, daughters of respectively Liliane and Jean-Louis, are still running the company today.

Cellars and architecture

The cellars of Champagne Cattier are located in Rilly-la-Montagne, with a storage capacity of 2 million bottles. Historically the depth of

cellars is estimated by the number of steps, since there was no technical mean to measure it. With their 119 steps (27 meters), the cellars of Champagne Cattier are the deepest ones, just before those of the House that are composed of 116 steps. Such a depth allows the champagnes to age in perfect conditions: at room temperature, sheltered from any turbulence from the outside. Champagne Cattier's cellars have the particularity of being dug on 3 levels. Each level is showing characteristics of a specific era :

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

. During

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the cellars were used as shelters from the bombings.

References

{{reflist, 2 Champagne producers 1918 establishments in France