When you ask someone at Moët & Chandon how many bottles of champagne the company sells a year, the answer is almost poetic: "We like to say that every second somewhere in the world, someone opens one of our bottles." Prestigious brands are renowned for their discretion when it comes to numbers. But if there are 3,600 seconds in an hour, that means 86,400 bottles of Moët are consumed every day. And that's more than 31 million bottles every year.
Simply put, it's the world's best-selling brand of champagne. And the one with the most exports, with 85% of bottles shipped to some 150 countries. By the same token, Moët owns the region's largest vineyard − 1,200 hectares − in addition to purchasing tonnes of grapes from independent growers. According to Brand Finance, a company specializing in brand valuation, Moët & Chandon, which belongs to the luxury group LVMH, had an estimated value of $1.4 billion in 2021, up 15% over the previous year. In short, it's no coincidence that Moët has long been nicknamed the "grande maison" – the great house.
Among its cuvées, the Imperial Brut has reigned supreme. Launched in 1869 to celebrate the centenary of Napoleon Bonaparte's birth, it quickly became a success, so much so that today, 85% of the house's bottles boast this label. The tribute is no accident, for the emperor left his mark on Moët's story and has continued to do so.
Moët champagne was created in 1743 by Claude Moët, and its fame soon spread throughout Europe. Bonaparte discovered it in 1801, when he was first consul. He became a loyal customer, as did his entire family. He made several visits to Epernay, where the company is based, sometimes during the course of a military campaign, and became friends with Jean-Rémy Moët, grandson of the founder, head of the company, and twice mayor of the town, between 1802 and 1831.
It's just as well that Moët's headquarters and the town hall have long stood opposite each other, on Rue du Commerce. This is where the mayor and his thousands of bottles slept, the latter in the damp coolness of 28 kilometers of underground cellars dug into the chalk. As for Napoleon, he made no secret of his taste for Burgundy and Champagne wines, asserting that they increased France's worldwide influence. It was for this contribution, as well as for his work as mayor of Epernay, that in 1814, (a year before the emperor's defeat at Waterloo) Jean-Rémy Moët was decorated with the National Order of the Legion of Honor by Napoleon himself.
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