Champagne Bonvalet, a house built from scratch in Pierry

Originally from the Oise region, Guillaume Bonvalet arrived in Reims as a teenager and decided that he would one day create his own house. With no ties to the vineyards, he spent his summers working for négociants, between palletising, tirage and disgorgement, before becoming a sales representative for major houses such as Taittinger and Laurent-Perrier. In 2012, he launched his own champagne at a winegrower's estate, borrowing his cellars. His first bottles came out in 2014, which he sold and delivered himself: his office was his car.

Pauline, his wife, left her native Belgium in 2017 to join him. Volumes had outgrown the winegrower's premises, so the couple decided to become négociant-manipulant and had a building constructed in Pierry capable of producing 200,000 bottles, where they settled at the end of 2021. There, the house vinifies grapes selected plot by plot, in Bisseuil, Saulcy, Ambonnay, Grauves, Pierry and on the hillsides of Épernay. Its motto comes from Jacques Cœur: “To a valiant heart, nothing is impossible.”