Beyond Champagne

Founded in 1785, Piper-Heidsieck is one of the Champagne region’s boldest and most auspicious maisons. With one bottle popped every six seconds, the brand is the most highly awarded champagne house, known for its consistent and iconic cuvées.

With such a long and storied history, there's little doubt that Piper-Heidsieck could focus on tradition alone to continue its success; instead, its enthusiasm for winemaking excellence has seen the brand make constant innovations – such as hiring one of the region’s youngest chief winemakers, Émilien Boutillat, in 2018. Émilien’s innovative state of mind has now seen Piper-Heidsieck become the first champagne house to certified as a B Corporation, aiming to continue to improve the quality of its wines while having a proactive, positive social and environmental impact through sustainable practices.

B Corp certification is given to businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact, verifying its performance, accountability and transparency by allowing information to be measured against B Lab’s criteria. Non-profit network B Lab scores businesses on these areas with a total of 80 points required to be certified – Piper-Heidsieck obtained 91.9 points.

“Achieving B Corp certification reflects our pioneering ethos and daring initiative to be a driving force of change in the champagne industry,” said Piper-Heidsieck CEO Benoît Collard. “This certification not only recognises our environmental impact in the vineyards, but extends to our entire winemaking ecosystem, our community and our workplace.”

Benoît explains that the brand’s future aims cover a variety of areas, including carbon footprint reduction, supply, Piper Lab and social impact. This covers practical goals from minimising the house’s carbon footprint by 46% per bottle by 2030 and having the lightest bottle on the market, to launching a drastic energy-saving programme in addition to the brand’s switch to 100% renewable electricity in 2021, and investing in organisations like Time for the Planet and the International Wineries for Climate Action to help tackle climate change.

In the social arena, Piper-Heidsieck has pledged to endorse gender equality and parity for managers –  51% of whom are currently women – and advocating for inclusion by engaging with young, emerging and diverse talent in both its employees and collaborations across all campaigns.

Piper-Heidsieck’s most innovative sustainable practices will no doubt emerge from the brand’s Piper Lab, which is devoted to preserving and enhancing biodiversity and local species – from implementing viticultural experiments in cover crops, organic farming and agroforestry to planting 1000 trees and shrubs and installing eight beehives to preserve and promote biodiversity in its vineyards.

“This process began with an innovative vision from our chief winemaker, Émilien Boutillat, which propelled our entire team on a journey to work together towards a shared mission, and I am immensely proud to see this remarkable achievement brought to life,” said Benoît. “Becoming B Corp Certified marks a commemorative occasion in the history of Piper-Heidsieck, yet it also signifies that together, we are striving towards sustainable change and we hope to inspire others in the wine industry to implement similar initiatives.”

For Benoît and Émilien, the move to innovate is natural one, inspired by Piper-Heidsieck’s past. The grand marque has its roots in the champagne first created by German winemaker Florens-Louis Heidsieck in 1777. By 1785, his maison, Heidsieck & Cie, boasted Marie Antoinette as its first ambassador. Henri-Guillaume Piper joined the company in 1815, working closely with Florens-Louis’ nephew Christian to expand the champagne empire to become royal warrant holder to 14 royal and imperial courts. Since then, Piper-Heidsieck has worked with big names from Fabergé to Marilyn Monroe – who, in 1953, said: “I go to bed with a few drops of Chanel No5 and I wake up each morning to a glass of Piper-Heidsieck.”

This new B Corp certification – which is also extended to the maison’s sister brands Charles Heidsieck and Rare Champagne, part of the family-owned EPI Group – is the latest avenue for advancement for a brand that seems determined to protect its vineyards and community for generations to come. As Benoît says: “Now, more than ever, we believe in taking inspired action to pave a new path forward by constantly adapting to enforce strategies that better our champagne production, while having a positive impact on the world.”

piper-heidsieck.com