The Cellar Master

A message from Michel Fauconnet, Laurent-Perrier’s third Cellar Master

“I was fortunate enough to be accepted as a trainee for a Champagne House with great ambitions and scope for expansion. I found the job fascinating: from the raw materials–grapes – you obtain a bottle of champagne. Forty years later, this transformation still enthrals me!

I got my experience from working from the bottom upwards over several years. I know every stage of production from having worked there: I was a cellarman from 1974 to 1976, a supervisor in 1977 and a foreman in 1981. I learned a lot about the technical side in the winery and have been Cellar Master and Production Manager since 2004. I took over from Alain Terrier, whose assistant I had been since 1983.

The job has changed enormously. The Cellar Master used to be the man who made the wine. These days, he also takes care of supplies. So he is responsible for the wine from vinification to bottling.

I have spent my entire career at this House and share its passion for champagne, and its values of exacting standards and perfectionism. My job is to make those vins de plaisir that are perfectly attuned to the spirit of the House of Laurent-Perrier.”