Our partnership with Gratien Meyer has spanned generations of Wine Society members. This timeline highlights some of the key moments in a relationship that has endured for well over a century.
1864 – Ten years before The Wine Society was founded, a young (23-year-old) Alfred Gratien sees the potential of Saumur’s abandoned tuffeau quarried tunnels (the rocks famously used to construct nearby Château de Saumur) for wine production. He buys the estate which comes with 5km of chalk tunnels and 20ha of vines. Later the same year he goes into Champagne production, setting up his business a few miles from Epernay.
1874 – The Wine Society is founded following the International Exhibition held at the Albert Hall in London. The 1874 vintage in Champagne is described in an old Wine Society List as, ‘not surpassed by any Champagnes known to fame’.
1885 – Jean-Albert Meyer, a wine grower’s son from Alsace, had been working alongside Alfred. Gratien, matching him in energy and zeal. Together they built up the two houses in the Loire and Champagne. Following Alfred’s sad and untimely death in 1885, Jean-Albert is appointed general manager by Alfred’s widow.
1905 – While ownership of business passes down through the Meyer family, in Epernay, the craft has remained in the hands of the same family since 1905 when Gaston Jaeger takes on the role of cellarmaster. Today, Champagne production is in the skilled hands of Nicolas Jaeger, who took over from his father in 1990, after a 17-year apprenticeship working alongside his father Jean-Pierre.
1906 – The year The Wine Society places its first order for sparkling wine, initially sparkling Saumur from the Loire, followed shortly after by Champagne from Alfred Gratien in Epernay. This is the start of a great friendship between our organisations that will only strengthen and blossom over the next century and beyond.
1936 – Eric Seydoux (son-in-law of Albert-Edmond Meyer) joins the company. He takes particular interest in nurturing the relationship between The Wine Society and Gratien and in the inter-war period meets with our buyers on the first Wednesday of the month at the Folies Bergères in Paris!
1940 – During WWII, the occupying forces were particularly keen on Champagne, buying up stocks reserved for The Wine Society and overprinting our label with ‘property of the Wehrmacht’. They wanted to keep our label – it was a sign of quality!
1945 – It was only really after WWII that our buyers started to travel to visit wine regions. When visiting Alfred Gratien, they often enjoyed lunch at the station buffet in Epernay which had a great reputation for local gastronomy at the time!
1960 – When The Wine Society renames a core group of wines as ‘The Society’s, it’s no surprise that our longest-standing supplier is included. Our ‘Special Private Cuvée 33’ is hence forward known as The Society’s Champagne Brut – retaining ‘33’ in the reference code – to this day and still lovingly referred to as ‘Cuvée 33’ by the Jaegers.
1974 – Alfred Gratien provide The Society’s Centenary Cuvée Champagne for our 100-year celebration, offered to members at £3.97 a bottle with the List note recommending buying a couple of cases to lay down for future drinking. I wonder if anyone has any left?
1989 – Always by our side when there are celebrations to toast, Alfred Gratien supply special cuvées of Champagne and Crémant de Loire to commemorate the opening of our brand-new cellars, Members’ Reserves, Showroom and Members’ Room in Stevenage.
1992 – Eric Seydoux’s sons, Alain and Gérard, take over the business and frequently visit us in Stevenage as well as joining with us at tastings to pour their wines for members.
1999 – The turn of the new millennium happily coincided with The Wine Society celebrating its 125th birthday. Once again, we worked with Alfred Gratien to create a special Champagne for members to toast this milestone. The beautifully presented Cuvée Millénaire, based on the 1995 vintage, came in halves, standard and magnum bottles and tasted as good as it looked.
2000 – The pressures of French inheritance laws see the Seydoux family stepping away from the business and selling it to Henkell & Co. It marks a new chapter for both houses in the Loire and Champagne with investment allowing facilities to be upgraded and modernised but winemaking very much left to carry on in its time-honoured way.
2006 – Celebrating a centenary of collaboration and friendship two special non-vintage Champagnes were released – Cuvée du Centenaire and Cuvée du Centenaire Blanc de Blancs. We launched a new blend of our ever-popular Crémant de Loire with more chardonnay for extra finesse.
2016 – We mark 110 years working together with some fantastic fizz deals and the chance to win a trip to Epernay for our members. Gratien Meyer continue to innovate and stay ahead of the curve, launching a new rosé Crémant de Loire, following the launch 10 years earlier of the incredibly successful 0% alc Féstillant.
2024 – For our 150th Anniversary we have a very special bottling of Champagne from the 2012 vintage and a one-off cuvée of crémant under our Generation Series label made from a blend that echoed those of an earlier era. The team travel over several times to pour their bubbles for our members at our celebratory tastings.
2026 – We celebrate 120 years of friendship and being a ‘business family’ with special late-disgorged bottlings from both the Loire and Epernay and some wonderfully generous discounts on The Society’s Champagne Brut to help keep the bubbles popping for another generation!
>> Find out more about our 120th anniversary with Alfred Gratien
