Château d’Yquem: Exploring Wine, Noble Rot, and Human Emotion with Lorenzo Pasquini

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Wine is by definition very human.

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It's how human beings have been

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capable of stopping the process of transformation of wine

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into vinegar and create this beverage

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that creates emotion into human beings'

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bodies and souls. Sit back and grab a

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glass. It's Wine Talks with Paul Kaye.

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Welcome to Wine Talks with Paul Kaye, and we are at an away game today

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out in Beverly Hills at Wally's, about to have a conversation with Lorenzo

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Pasquini of Château d'Yquem. And I'm just going to go

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right into it because it was such an interesting tasting. You are the chief, you

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are the director, chief, what do they

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call you exactly? We say CEO, but indeed it's the director of

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the estate. The CEO seems like an American term. It is.

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In French we say directeur. Yeah, the director. But it will be the

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director. And yes, in English it will be CEO. Do you think,

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you know, as I was listening and watching your presentation at lunch and then

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also here at Wally's— we're at Wally's in Beverly Hills, by the way, everybody. It's

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an incredible restaurant and bar and wine bar if you're interested in coming out, or

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if you are in Beverly Hills, for sure you swing by Wally's.

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Do you think the Château de Quim,

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is potentially the most iconic brand of wine

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from France, from Bordeaux? I don't

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know. It's certainly a name that resonates

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very high. Then I don't know if it

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is a brand or a name and where it sits

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in the ranking. Definitely, we

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believe it's one of the most beautiful

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wines in the world. And definitely it's a wine

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that creates emotion and that

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resonates in a lot of people's mind. Glad you said it that way.

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And for the listeners, you'll hear why Château d'Yquem is so special

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and so emotional. And we're going to get into that in a minute. But

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my father was a very academic wine person. He

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bought a wine shop right here in Southern California, made it one of the top

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5 in the '70s and '80s. And his most

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momentous moment that he would tell, and there's lots of

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stories, was he stood in line at the Hublin

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auction and they were auctioning off, I don't know how many bottles of the

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21 Dikembe. And he couldn't

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wait to taste it. He stood in line for like an hour and then they

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gave him this little thimble full of this wine. And it was one of the

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highlights of his career in the trade. And he

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did a lot. And I think it's because of that

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emotion. Why? And I was going to ask you this

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during our tasting. What is it about a wine that's been hung on—

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hangs on the vine, gets literally rotten,

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can create so much emotion? It's a combination of things.

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First of all, the name Yquem itself already creates

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something. Then the wine for us has

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the capacity, we like to say, to be universal.

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Meaning that it's a wine in our mind that is capable

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of creating emotions into

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savvy wine people, but also into people that

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are new in wine. And the reason of that is also

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multifactorial, meaning that

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it's definitely, first of all, the

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relationship that this time has with time. This is a

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wine that can travel through decades,

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centuries, but also wine that you can enjoy in its

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most vibrant youth. That's, I think, very touching, very emotional.

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And two, it's aromatic complexity.

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We like to call it the aromatic brightness of the wine. The wine is very

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bright, very, you know, involving

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in a way. Since the first moment you put the nose on top, it's

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a bouquet that is very intense and very complex.

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And then in terms of palate, of course, the sugar. The wine is sweet. The

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sugar, it's a big ally to, you know, involve people, to

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bring people in. But then together with the sugar, there

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are plenty of other dimensions. There is this

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bright acidity, this long bitter and

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salinity, the taste that comes with the sugar and the

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dynamism, we like to call it the dynamism of the sugar. And so all

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this is, you know, a combination of sensations

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that usually moves you and that stays with you for a

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long time. We like to think that drinking again. It's

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an experience that stays with you.

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Probably the most emotional

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wine I've ever tasted. Unfortunately, I have Château d'Yquem at home.

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I don't open it every day. I have some Barsac Château Coutet.

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Very good. But it doesn't matter because even today,

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you have to take a pause when you put that wine to your nose.

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And you have to stop and it almost stirs up

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thoughts. It almost brings back something. Something happens. And

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I suppose that is the ethereal connection of

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wine to the earth, to the soul of the human being. Right?

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We talked about that. Wine is by definition very

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human. It's how human

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being has been capable of stopping the process of

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transformation of wine into vinegar. And create this

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beverage that creates emotion into human

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beings' bodies and souls.

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I think that Yquem, and more generally the wines that are

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based on this natural phenomenon called noble rot,

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have probably a supplement of emotion thanks

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to this thing of the noble rot, which

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itself is incredible. It's a transformation of

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the worst disease in viticulture into something that

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brings the grapes to a second life. But the result, it's even

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more incredible because the result is a wine that is more

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concentrated, more aromatic, that

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has this relationship with time that it's unique. So

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it's a wonderful transformation. And what's beautiful

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behind all this is that this is only based on

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nature. It's not something we can replicate or fake. Whether

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you have the microclimate for it or you don't, and that's it. That

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was one of the questions today, and I wanted to bring it up again because

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we could probably do this for 3 hours, and so we don't have that much

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time. But there's late harvest Rieslings, they're gorgeous. There's California late

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harvest wines, and that's just a wine that has dried on the

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vine, hasn't gotten rotten. And if it does get rotten, it's not going to

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be what you're calling noble rot, try this, which creates this

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character. But the thing that I thought was fascinating you said was that

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that's completely out of your control, and that dynamic

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that it creates is nothing the winemaker can do about it. You

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have to wait. It positions you

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in a position of

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humbleness. Humility. Humility. Sorry.

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Humility. And meaning that

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indeed you are a little bit less in control. Of course, there are things

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that we can do in order to put the grapes in the best conditions

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to receive the noble rot and to express it. But

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if the microclimatic conditions of the year are

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either too dry or too humid, there is not much we can

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do. We just have to accept. And

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observe, and be ready to react.

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At each time, there is a window to capture the grapes at the best spot.

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That's phenomenal. And I think what's nice behind this, apart from

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the humility or humbleness, if I can use

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this word, humility, it's

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the fact that it's very artisanal. And I

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think the world needs stories that are natural, that are

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artisanal, especially as of today where a

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lot of things are very much under the control of technology.

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I think it's nice to say that there are still things that are

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just under the control of nature and the sky

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and what the sky wants to do with it. It is a sense of humility

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that would force you into just waiting and understanding

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and hoping that the thing— it was fascinating to me about the region of

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this part of France, which is south Bordeaux, basically in the south left bank,

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is that it only happens there. And

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so it's part of the terroir. So whatever it is that the

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climate creates, the humidity you talked about and the humility

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that has created that, that it landed

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in Bordeaux. And why? How did it come

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to humanity? You talked about it before we had to get the whole

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story, but how did it come to humanity that this was something so

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special that we had to see what was going to happen if

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we made wine from these literally rotten grapes. I think if any

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consumer or listener of the show saw the grapes, they'd go, "Eh," right? Like

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they'd throw them away. You know what's fun is that if you look

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at the bunch of grape that is rotten, it's very ugly.

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But when we brought these grapes to our

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laboratory and we looked with the laboratory

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inside the grape. We saw, I can

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show you the picture, we saw the blooming of the fungus

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that is wonderful, that looks like a flower. So that teaches you

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that sometimes beauty is about perspective. So you have

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to look from very close to see it beautiful. And this picture

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that you can find on internet that I can show you, it's really

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fantastic. It shows you all

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the poetry also behind this winemaking. I would love to frame a picture like

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that. 'Cause it's probably really cool looking. It is. They do like an X-ray

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photo kind of thing? No, it's just a, you know, you zoom it

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a lot, 400 times. Yeah. Until you see the actual

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if of the fungus and it looks like a flower. I will show it to

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you. How interesting. So we

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were talking a little bit about the marketing of wine and the way the generations

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approach wine. And I was telling you about the collector friends I have that,

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seek all the great vintages from the Bordeaux and Burgundy

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region. And I think that

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element of time travel, which you were talking about earlier, is really the

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key to the sustenance and the

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longevity of wine. It's been around thousands of years. We know this. We already know

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there's a 6,000-year-old winery in Armenia. It's

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not going anywhere. And I think you

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really said it right. You articulated the fact that it's a time

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travel. You are experiencing a place of

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time, a sense of time and a sense of place. And every time you open

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a different vintage, you're taken to a different time.

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We like to say that tasting an old vintage of Yquem

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is the most elegant way to travel through time. Yeah, that's so cool. And it's

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true. Wine is itself a travel in time and

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space because when in Los Angeles, you taste a

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wine that is made in Sauternes decades before. You're

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traveling together with the wine. I think that that travel is even

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more intense with Icap. It's— you said

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something too when you're tasting, and I had not experienced that.

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I don't want to get into the wine geeky stuff, but

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the salted caramel idea, this salinity

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concept. Boy, when you said that, I've never thought of it before in a wine

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like that because for the listeners, the wine is— there's a fair amount of

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sugar in it, right? If you were to calculate the amount of sugar, it's a

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fair amount. But that extra salinity, that extra complexity

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changes this. So let me ask you this question.

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You didn't make it since 1900, you said, 10

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times. And that's because the rot was the wrong rot or

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it never happened? Exactly. Because the weather was either too dry or too humid. But

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that's pretty good record, right? I mean, that's not bad. 10 times.

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No, that's not bad. I prefer it to

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stay like this and not to increase because I

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prefer to make the wine anyway rather than don't make. Because

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my thought is this, if you're particularly here in this case where

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botrytis sets in and you have to wait and be patient for the botrytis

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to develop, and that could happen at any time and it could develop further.

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I was going to ask you during our meeting what that metric

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was. We know phenolic ripeness, we know Brix,

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we know pH, we know all those things,

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but what is the metric with mold? There is not

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metric. Of course, we have an idea of the level of sugar we

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want when the juice is in the press,

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but the truth is that it's based on observation.

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Actually, the quality

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of a grape of noble rot is defined by its

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purity, meaning that it's only noble rot and not other

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microorganisms there that developed on the bunch.

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And that assessment has to be done either

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visually or by smelling the grapes. We ask to

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our pickers to put put their nose on the grapes to make sure it's

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only the best rot that they are harvesting.

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But as I said, there is no metrics. It's more experience and observation. What

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are they smelling for? Like my wife would say, that's disgusting. They

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just have to make sure that there are not other

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microorganisms that can taste, can smell something specific.

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And is that, are they trained for that? Of course, yeah. We have the chance

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to have this incredible group of pickers. Their average age

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is 60 years old. Wow. A third of them is above 70.

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Am I qualified? Some of them are

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retired from ICANN that keep coming for the harvest. And it's

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a real community that makes ICANN. And for us, it's super

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important also that since our wine is so artisanal,

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it relies not only on the technical team, it relies on

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the community of people that is proud to be behind this.

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It seems like then, if given that circumstance,

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00:14:59,765 --> 00:15:03,505
pickers know what to smell for, you are basically

236
00:15:03,617 --> 00:15:07,389
waiting for nature to come around and develop this grape in a way that

237
00:15:07,871 --> 00:15:11,627
represents Château d'Yquem, that there really are no

238
00:15:11,723 --> 00:15:15,287
bad vintages. There are different vintages. But if you

239
00:15:15,319 --> 00:15:18,738
make an honest wine from the grapes you're given, then

240
00:15:19,187 --> 00:15:22,991
that's a good vintage because it expresses that sense of time and that sense

241
00:15:23,055 --> 00:15:26,410
of place. And also because if the vintage is bad, we just don't make the

242
00:15:26,410 --> 00:15:30,069
wine. Yeah, as well. So when it carries the label, it means that it has

243
00:15:30,566 --> 00:15:34,402
at the level of quality that is required to

244
00:15:34,418 --> 00:15:38,077
carry the label. And then inside that, of course, there are

245
00:15:38,125 --> 00:15:41,576
different vintages. There is a small hierarchy between the

246
00:15:41,576 --> 00:15:45,411
different vintages, but if it's no good, it

247
00:15:45,411 --> 00:15:49,215
just doesn't exist. No good, you know, if you do put it

248
00:15:49,215 --> 00:15:52,857
in the bottle, then it is going to be a representation

249
00:15:53,274 --> 00:15:56,947
of that time. And it's different. Standard. Yes. Because there's a huge

250
00:15:56,996 --> 00:16:00,525
difference. And I'm not sure that I would've detected that without tasting them side by

251
00:16:00,525 --> 00:16:04,327
side between the vintages we tasted today, which is '17,

252
00:16:04,359 --> 00:16:07,840
'13, and '05, and the '23, which was fascinating to taste. And a huge

253
00:16:07,872 --> 00:16:10,744
difference all the way down. In one of them, I forgot which one it was,

254
00:16:11,321 --> 00:16:15,091
you were talking about you get the expression of the rot, the noble rot

255
00:16:15,172 --> 00:16:18,811
over the expression of the grape. 13, because 13 is a

256
00:16:18,811 --> 00:16:21,487
vintage where the weather was pretty

257
00:16:22,641 --> 00:16:26,310
cold, let's say, and cloudy. And so we

258
00:16:26,326 --> 00:16:29,980
don't have a big concentration of fruit compared to other

259
00:16:30,076 --> 00:16:33,474
vintages like, let's say, 17 that we're tasting today, or

260
00:16:33,474 --> 00:16:36,887
23 that we're launching at the moment.

261
00:16:37,303 --> 00:16:41,149
And so 13, a little bit like 2007, are pure expression

262
00:16:41,149 --> 00:16:44,904
of Dorothée itself. That's crazy. And it's very interesting to see that

263
00:16:44,904 --> 00:16:48,661
because people don't really know what this fungus can

264
00:16:48,758 --> 00:16:52,531
bring to the grapes. By tasting these wines, you can have an idea.

265
00:16:53,334 --> 00:16:56,947
When I open a bottle at home now, I'll admit we

266
00:16:57,107 --> 00:17:00,832
don't have roasted chicken on Sunday as the French. I do

267
00:17:00,832 --> 00:17:04,654
make pot-au-feu quite frequently. I love it. Pronounced well,

268
00:17:04,670 --> 00:17:08,507
actually. Yes. And I'm sure that goes with this, but But

269
00:17:08,587 --> 00:17:12,003
every time I do open a bottle of Barsac or Sauternes at the house,

270
00:17:12,692 --> 00:17:16,525
the first impression that people give— and I learned something today. I do use

271
00:17:16,525 --> 00:17:19,925
cordial glasses for that, and that's wrong. So we're going to go back to white

272
00:17:19,973 --> 00:17:23,645
wine glasses. It's okay. I get that. But a lot of

273
00:17:23,677 --> 00:17:27,270
times somebody says, no, I don't drink dessert wine. It's like, no, you just

274
00:17:27,670 --> 00:17:31,439
got to taste this. And especially it's not because it's a sweet

275
00:17:31,439 --> 00:17:35,225
wine that it's necessarily a dessert wine. Yes. It's a sweet wine that

276
00:17:35,225 --> 00:17:38,646
can go with dessert, but it can go with plenty of other things.

277
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,742
And it was— and everybody will rave and say, what is

278
00:17:42,838 --> 00:17:46,356
this? And they'll ask that question and they'll want to know the stories.

279
00:17:46,709 --> 00:17:49,118
And then all of a sudden it becomes an experience for them. And all of

280
00:17:49,134 --> 00:17:52,893
a sudden the bottle is empty. Yes, exactly. And then we get another one. We

281
00:17:52,893 --> 00:17:55,832
go to the cellar. You were talking about— and

282
00:17:57,390 --> 00:18:00,586
when I studied French, the language, in order to learn a language, you kind of

283
00:18:00,586 --> 00:18:04,086
got to study the culture in order to make things happen. And, you

284
00:18:04,214 --> 00:18:07,502
know, Josephine Baker, for instance, was a huge subject of mine. I loved

285
00:18:07,502 --> 00:18:10,918
Napoleon and Josephine, Josephine, his girlfriend.

286
00:18:11,415 --> 00:18:15,167
You know, that's a fascinating subject for me. And

287
00:18:15,985 --> 00:18:19,530
Eugénie, there's a book out on Eugénie. And you were talking about Britney today and

288
00:18:19,530 --> 00:18:23,170
she built that— I mean, Biarritz, the famous château down there.

289
00:18:24,325 --> 00:18:28,077
But you had— you brought up Josephine Ikem, you call her. But what's her— what

290
00:18:28,077 --> 00:18:31,445
was her real name? What was her— functioned at the château. Her name was

291
00:18:31,702 --> 00:18:34,492
Françoise Joséphine de Sauvage,

292
00:18:35,470 --> 00:18:39,207
married with de Lurselus. Very long name. Yes.

293
00:18:39,896 --> 00:18:42,686
So we call her Joséphine d'Ikem, very simply.

294
00:18:44,066 --> 00:18:47,305
Joséphine was the one who held the estate

295
00:18:47,978 --> 00:18:50,288
from 1785 until

296
00:18:50,288 --> 00:18:54,040
1851. Very long. Wow. She

297
00:18:54,072 --> 00:18:56,559
had a very long life. And she also

298
00:18:58,020 --> 00:19:01,858
was positioned at the top of the estate very young because she lost

299
00:19:01,858 --> 00:19:05,551
her parents when she was only 17. And so

300
00:19:05,567 --> 00:19:08,859
during this long life, totally

301
00:19:08,859 --> 00:19:12,600
dedicated to ICAM, she has done plenty of

302
00:19:12,632 --> 00:19:16,293
things that were somehow of a revolution

303
00:19:16,405 --> 00:19:20,034
or at least a before and after. I

304
00:19:20,484 --> 00:19:23,326
think that Probably she is the one that

305
00:19:24,114 --> 00:19:27,712
positioned Yquem where we know it today. And

306
00:19:27,712 --> 00:19:30,956
actually, the proof of that is that 4 years after she passed away,

307
00:19:31,486 --> 00:19:35,149
Yquem was classified Superior First Growth. So it's clear

308
00:19:35,438 --> 00:19:39,020
that it was thanks to her that we had this unique positioning, because

309
00:19:39,373 --> 00:19:43,035
we were the only one in Bordeaux to be positioned as Superior First Growth.

310
00:19:44,031 --> 00:19:45,927
And what she has done was

311
00:19:47,564 --> 00:19:51,385
polished the technical approach of harvesting by successive

312
00:19:51,417 --> 00:19:55,237
passes, set

313
00:19:55,494 --> 00:19:59,202
the fact of aging the wine in new barrels, built the

314
00:19:59,282 --> 00:20:02,461
barrel cellar that we still use today. And

315
00:20:02,477 --> 00:20:05,703
actually today will reach the

316
00:20:05,703 --> 00:20:09,443
200 years of existence. Wow, congratulations! She

317
00:20:09,443 --> 00:20:13,119
started to position before with her husband, and then alone when her

318
00:20:13,215 --> 00:20:16,907
husband passed away. He came on the best tables

319
00:20:17,020 --> 00:20:20,550
and the best the courts around Europe.

320
00:20:21,352 --> 00:20:25,122
She did the label as we know it with the

321
00:20:25,122 --> 00:20:28,203
letters and the crown. So she was a

322
00:20:29,438 --> 00:20:32,695
manager of a luxury brand way

323
00:20:32,903 --> 00:20:36,594
before these words would exist. And the impressive

324
00:20:36,594 --> 00:20:40,203
thing is that she has done that during the course of the French Revolution,

325
00:20:40,845 --> 00:20:42,690
which was a—

326
00:20:44,793 --> 00:20:47,715
Let's see. Well, so she was around with

327
00:20:47,988 --> 00:20:51,600
Madame Clicquot then? More or less. About that

328
00:20:51,841 --> 00:20:55,148
time? Yeah, more or less. During the French Revolution? I know that was an issue

329
00:20:55,148 --> 00:20:58,905
for her. Yeah, it was the same period.

330
00:20:59,050 --> 00:21:02,598
Interesting, because I do think it's interesting, and I try to

331
00:21:02,662 --> 00:21:06,386
articulate this, a lot of French women here in the wine business in America—

332
00:21:06,932 --> 00:21:10,720
I sat with one today, Clarisse— But

333
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,280
it's a very patriarchal society, at least it was for a long time. It was

334
00:21:14,376 --> 00:21:17,695
very much. And there's here these strong women that are making this. Actually, she was

335
00:21:17,759 --> 00:21:21,463
an only child, so that was probably the reason why she

336
00:21:21,591 --> 00:21:25,103
was raised as someone who would

337
00:21:25,135 --> 00:21:28,631
take the estate, even though at the time it was not very

338
00:21:28,663 --> 00:21:31,709
common to have a woman taking over the estate.

339
00:21:32,174 --> 00:21:35,975
But it was great because there is also a big feminine touch to these

340
00:21:36,039 --> 00:21:39,297
wines, and so probably Thanks to her and her feminine touch,

341
00:21:40,774 --> 00:21:44,564
we set a style, a vision that we continue

342
00:21:44,564 --> 00:21:47,599
to respect almost 200 years later.

343
00:21:48,322 --> 00:21:52,064
So what's the oldest vintage you've tasted? Myself? In

344
00:21:52,064 --> 00:21:55,870
1811. Wow. Yeah, and

345
00:21:55,870 --> 00:21:59,354
I had the chance to taste some vintages of the 19th century. I

346
00:21:59,483 --> 00:22:03,321
have in mind very precisely an 1865 that

347
00:22:03,321 --> 00:22:06,995
I tasted 3 years ago. And it's incredible when you taste these

348
00:22:07,107 --> 00:22:10,683
very old vintages of Yquem. And what's the most incredible thing

349
00:22:11,020 --> 00:22:14,805
is that you still can imagine the future of these wines. It's

350
00:22:14,805 --> 00:22:18,525
not like you're tasting a wine at the end of its run,

351
00:22:18,798 --> 00:22:22,630
right? You taste the wine that you feel it's still running

352
00:22:22,727 --> 00:22:26,351
and it will continue to run. And that is the most incredible. That's so

353
00:22:26,351 --> 00:22:30,119
interesting. So it's a— so obviously the colors are changed

354
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:33,875
and the balance of acid, fruit, sugar, and

355
00:22:33,875 --> 00:22:35,770
sugar being a preservative in itself.

356
00:22:37,568 --> 00:22:41,196
You said something earlier today and I wanted to kind of peel it back. We

357
00:22:41,918 --> 00:22:45,611
were talking about the export of Bordeaux to England, and of

358
00:22:45,611 --> 00:22:49,352
course that was the huge market for not only Bordeaux, but as a négociants, but

359
00:22:49,368 --> 00:22:53,140
for Champagne as well. And their cuvée was different than the Russian cuvée.

360
00:22:53,863 --> 00:22:57,555
And you talked about the technical changes that have occurred, but here's a

361
00:22:57,572 --> 00:23:01,135
wine from 1811, from 1865, that you are

362
00:23:02,322 --> 00:23:05,916
fascinated with the taste. And so how much difference does the

363
00:23:05,916 --> 00:23:09,382
technical play in this? There are,

364
00:23:09,927 --> 00:23:13,264
I cannot say exactly which are the difference since

365
00:23:13,264 --> 00:23:16,794
1865, but IKEM has always

366
00:23:17,371 --> 00:23:21,013
kept a will of improving.

367
00:23:21,462 --> 00:23:24,896
And I think that is the most important thing that we have to bear in

368
00:23:25,008 --> 00:23:28,733
mind as a team who today has the chance and the privilege to be

369
00:23:29,038 --> 00:23:32,314
at the Helmut Newton, which is that we have this

370
00:23:32,314 --> 00:23:35,462
incredible past that we have to respect.

371
00:23:36,329 --> 00:23:40,152
We have this incredible wine

372
00:23:40,184 --> 00:23:43,958
that is based on some things that define the style of the

373
00:23:44,039 --> 00:23:47,219
wine that we need to transmit and enhance.

374
00:23:48,215 --> 00:23:51,941
But at the same time, our mind doesn't have to be only the

375
00:23:51,989 --> 00:23:55,764
one of respecting and transmitting, because it's not

376
00:23:55,764 --> 00:23:59,298
by doing the same things that you will necessarily have always the same

377
00:23:59,298 --> 00:24:02,832
result. Actually, I think that we need to

378
00:24:02,832 --> 00:24:06,623
keep alive this flame of trying to struggle

379
00:24:06,671 --> 00:24:10,510
for that 0.1% of improvement, because it's

380
00:24:10,527 --> 00:24:13,996
that that will keep you having the same result, I think.

381
00:24:14,334 --> 00:24:18,093
So always striving to try to do better and better and

382
00:24:18,093 --> 00:24:20,887
better. And if we look at the history of, again, this And this is what

383
00:24:20,887 --> 00:24:24,429
happened. And so this is what we have to continue to do, balance that

384
00:24:24,429 --> 00:24:28,276
vision of transmission and protection together with the

385
00:24:28,276 --> 00:24:32,123
vision of challenging some aspects in order to try to do

386
00:24:32,428 --> 00:24:35,987
even better if possible. And so over these last

387
00:24:36,115 --> 00:24:39,930
200 years, of course, there have been improvements, which doesn't mean that the

388
00:24:39,978 --> 00:24:42,960
style changed. It just means that

389
00:24:43,104 --> 00:24:46,053
it's not because a brand is so

390
00:24:46,086 --> 00:24:49,680
established that it's steady and

391
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:53,373
it's actually the other way. As I said, it's trying to keep the

392
00:24:53,373 --> 00:24:57,066
best and improve the rest. Is that a tough balance? And

393
00:24:57,147 --> 00:25:00,583
we're going to get into your career here in a second where you've learned all

394
00:25:00,615 --> 00:25:03,746
this, but it always seems to me a tough balance to—

395
00:25:04,774 --> 00:25:08,274
now you've added this whole element and complexity of

396
00:25:08,611 --> 00:25:12,128
noble rot, but to express a

397
00:25:12,144 --> 00:25:15,366
wine Use technology, do all the things you need to do to improve it a

398
00:25:15,366 --> 00:25:18,973
little bit, whatever, how slow it is in our business. You only get one chance

399
00:25:18,973 --> 00:25:22,548
a year to do it, but also maintain what is

400
00:25:22,884 --> 00:25:26,651
Château d'Yquem, like making sure that that customer knows when they put it in the

401
00:25:26,651 --> 00:25:30,194
glass, this is who we are, but it's progressed from where we

402
00:25:30,194 --> 00:25:33,929
were. I think it's based on two things. One

403
00:25:34,186 --> 00:25:38,033
is not rush, meaning that it's true that you make

404
00:25:38,033 --> 00:25:41,688
wine only once a year. But Ecam is a very

405
00:25:41,801 --> 00:25:45,537
long story, and if it's not this year,

406
00:25:45,601 --> 00:25:49,241
it could be next year. And I think we have to view

407
00:25:49,674 --> 00:25:53,250
the evolutions on a long-term vision and

408
00:25:53,683 --> 00:25:57,500
change things that could be repeated and that

409
00:25:57,532 --> 00:26:01,188
could stay for the next decades or so. So first of all is

410
00:26:01,204 --> 00:26:04,315
position ourselves on a vision of long-term,

411
00:26:04,732 --> 00:26:08,518
long-term on how we do things. And the, the time

412
00:26:08,518 --> 00:26:11,503
frame where those things that we will do will continue.

413
00:26:12,530 --> 00:26:14,039
And the second is also

414
00:26:16,542 --> 00:26:20,153
know what things— no, so

415
00:26:20,218 --> 00:26:24,037
well, Hicham, that you're able to, to

416
00:26:24,166 --> 00:26:27,536
make the difference between those things that are vital to keep

417
00:26:28,001 --> 00:26:31,677
and those things that are important to evolve. And the only

418
00:26:32,030 --> 00:26:35,771
way to be able to judge

419
00:26:35,947 --> 00:26:39,624
is by knowing the estate so precisely that you can

420
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,237
understand which is which. So that's an

421
00:26:43,269 --> 00:26:46,898
interesting thought. When I was in Wine Paris, I went to

422
00:26:47,347 --> 00:26:50,093
the Armenian booth. I spoke to an old friend. Her name was Juliana.

423
00:26:51,538 --> 00:26:55,311
She was consulted by— there's a bug in here— by Michel

424
00:26:55,311 --> 00:26:59,147
Rolland when they were growing grapes in the the valley. And

425
00:26:59,163 --> 00:27:03,010
she said, he said to me, yes, you can grow

426
00:27:03,010 --> 00:27:06,425
grapes here and they're probably going to be good grapes, but we have to wait

427
00:27:06,425 --> 00:27:10,143
100 years to find out what's going to happen. You've been there

428
00:27:10,143 --> 00:27:13,670
6 years. So how does that feel like?

429
00:27:14,006 --> 00:27:17,533
It feels like you're just a youngin, right? It's sure

430
00:27:17,677 --> 00:27:20,755
that in an estate like Yquem,

431
00:27:22,085 --> 00:27:25,147
the time feels different. You could stay there

432
00:27:25,692 --> 00:27:29,321
30 years, and it's still small compared to the history of the estate.

433
00:27:29,786 --> 00:27:33,270
So what you rely on is also what the

434
00:27:33,399 --> 00:27:36,658
people before you passed. And so we have things

435
00:27:36,851 --> 00:27:40,447
written, we have records, we have things that have been

436
00:27:40,447 --> 00:27:44,076
transmitted by word of mouth. And so the

437
00:27:44,076 --> 00:27:47,496
first thing that you do when you enter in a world like Yquem is to

438
00:27:47,608 --> 00:27:51,269
study, to try to learn, to read and to listen.

439
00:27:51,622 --> 00:27:55,344
To the people that have been there

440
00:27:55,392 --> 00:27:58,793
before. And also, of course,

441
00:27:59,162 --> 00:28:02,900
ECAP is not only myself. We are 80 in

442
00:28:02,916 --> 00:28:06,044
the estate, 50 in the technical team,

443
00:28:07,006 --> 00:28:10,600
3 as the managers within the

444
00:28:10,712 --> 00:28:14,482
very technical core, myself, the cellar master, and the vineyard manager.

445
00:28:14,803 --> 00:28:18,638
We have some consultants also that have been there for a very long time. Our

446
00:28:18,638 --> 00:28:22,221
president, Mr. Wauton, has been there for 20 years. My

447
00:28:22,334 --> 00:28:26,045
predecessor has been there for 40 years, and he's still a

448
00:28:26,045 --> 00:28:29,789
consultant for us. So you see, it's a group of people

449
00:28:30,143 --> 00:28:33,983
that are all focused on the same way and that also

450
00:28:34,786 --> 00:28:38,386
are aligned on the same way of doing things. Sounds like there's like

451
00:28:38,386 --> 00:28:41,856
100 years of experience there. Just add it all up, right? It's a

452
00:28:41,856 --> 00:28:45,693
community and a culture that allows us to

453
00:28:45,709 --> 00:28:48,658
go beyond the timeframe of

454
00:28:48,851 --> 00:28:51,495
ourselves. Yeah.

455
00:28:53,243 --> 00:28:56,994
You were not— you weren't born in France and you are at the helm right

456
00:28:57,026 --> 00:29:00,681
now of one of the most prestigious brands and not only brand of

457
00:29:00,777 --> 00:29:04,576
wine that's so recognizable, but in the luxury segment, which

458
00:29:04,576 --> 00:29:08,311
is, you know, a huge segment for obviously LVMH is all about that. But

459
00:29:09,433 --> 00:29:12,785
you were born in Tuscany. What's up with that? I mean,

460
00:29:13,283 --> 00:29:15,546
you're a Sangiovese guy. Yeah,

461
00:29:17,376 --> 00:29:20,810
I was raised in Italy. I was actually born in Rome

462
00:29:21,083 --> 00:29:24,839
and raised between Rome and Tuscany, where my family has a small vineyard

463
00:29:24,839 --> 00:29:28,353
estate. But very quickly I wanted to come to

464
00:29:28,386 --> 00:29:32,125
Bordeaux to finish my education. And actually the opportunities

465
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:36,378
made me stay in Bordeaux or related to Bordeaux. So I'm very much

466
00:29:36,988 --> 00:29:40,577
A son of Bordeaux also, I've very much been

467
00:29:41,298 --> 00:29:44,791
trained in Bordeaux and learned in Bordeaux. But definitely,

468
00:29:45,448 --> 00:29:48,429
I was very lucky and very privileged to

469
00:29:48,429 --> 00:29:52,114
have the chance to be part of this story and now even

470
00:29:52,114 --> 00:29:55,848
more to be appointed CEO. And this definitely went above

471
00:29:56,201 --> 00:29:59,822
what I could dare to expect for me. Well,

472
00:30:00,046 --> 00:30:03,893
it's a huge difference in cultures. I mean, I was fascinated. We've

473
00:30:03,893 --> 00:30:06,477
been to Monaco a couple of times for the Grand Prix, which is just one

474
00:30:06,477 --> 00:30:09,896
of my favorite things to do. And you just drive 45 minutes,

475
00:30:09,912 --> 00:30:13,171
you're in San Remo, and it's a different culture altogether.

476
00:30:13,749 --> 00:30:17,232
And I suppose because of Catherine de' Medici

477
00:30:17,361 --> 00:30:21,197
coming from Florence to marry the king and that there's

478
00:30:21,310 --> 00:30:25,050
a blending of cultures, but it just seems like they're so different. Not much.

479
00:30:25,403 --> 00:30:29,079
France and Italy are very, very close. I like to say that they

480
00:30:29,095 --> 00:30:32,705
are two faces of the same medal. Oh, there are plenty of things that

481
00:30:32,786 --> 00:30:36,170
put us close. The Mediterranean culture, the love for

482
00:30:36,170 --> 00:30:40,003
cuisine, the love for wine, the

483
00:30:40,147 --> 00:30:43,835
historical heritage, the love

484
00:30:43,851 --> 00:30:47,444
for artisanal and agricultural products. So

485
00:30:48,262 --> 00:30:51,710
there are plenty of things that make France and Italy close.

486
00:30:52,015 --> 00:30:55,783
French people love to go to Italy, and Italian people love to go

487
00:30:55,783 --> 00:30:59,556
to France. There are plenty of Italian people working in France and

488
00:30:59,716 --> 00:31:02,719
French people working in Italy. Also in wine, there are these exchanges.

489
00:31:03,281 --> 00:31:06,814
I'm not the only Italian guy making wine in France, and there

490
00:31:07,183 --> 00:31:09,335
are plenty of French guys making wine in Italy.

491
00:31:11,070 --> 00:31:14,908
So I think there are two countries that are extremely

492
00:31:14,972 --> 00:31:18,408
close and welcoming one with the other. I'm glad to hear that.

493
00:31:19,147 --> 00:31:22,760
It's true. I'm sure it is. Have you ever made wine in the New World,

494
00:31:22,776 --> 00:31:26,582
like North America, South America? Yes, I

495
00:31:26,630 --> 00:31:29,932
had the chance to live 4 years in Argentina making white wine. And

496
00:31:29,996 --> 00:31:33,841
that was just between my first period in Bordeaux and

497
00:31:33,841 --> 00:31:37,446
my second period in Bordeaux. You know, it seems that even Argentina,

498
00:31:37,526 --> 00:31:41,259
Chile, even though it's New World because it's a younger appellation and

499
00:31:41,371 --> 00:31:44,784
there's less tradition to worry about, it still has a very

500
00:31:45,056 --> 00:31:48,533
traditional feel about it. Argentina? Yes. Yeah, I

501
00:31:48,581 --> 00:31:52,395
always like to say I was working for Cheval des Andes,

502
00:31:52,507 --> 00:31:56,256
which is the extension of Château Cheval Blanc in Argentina. And

503
00:31:56,256 --> 00:31:59,962
also part of the VNH group. And I always, when I was there, I

504
00:31:59,978 --> 00:32:03,700
always like to say that Argentina is an

505
00:32:03,957 --> 00:32:07,775
old viticulture in the new world. There are

506
00:32:08,208 --> 00:32:12,058
centuries, more than a century of history of viticulture

507
00:32:12,058 --> 00:32:15,331
in Argentina. That's a good way to put it. Malbec arrived there in

508
00:32:15,331 --> 00:32:19,053
1861, and I had the chance

509
00:32:19,053 --> 00:32:22,598
at Cheval de Zon, they still have vineyards from the '20s, of last

510
00:32:22,598 --> 00:32:26,031
century. Wow. So I mean, that positions

511
00:32:26,096 --> 00:32:29,801
Argentina not necessarily in the new world per se

512
00:32:30,106 --> 00:32:33,539
as we consider it. Of course, the story of the Argentine wine is

513
00:32:33,571 --> 00:32:36,988
different from the French or Italian, and there are things that are new,

514
00:32:38,063 --> 00:32:41,913
but there is a real wine and vine culture in Argentina

515
00:32:41,913 --> 00:32:45,731
that dates back. So Cheval des Andes is

516
00:32:46,004 --> 00:32:49,694
in Mendoza? It is. And is it high altitude Malbec

517
00:32:49,694 --> 00:32:53,448
type thing? Yes, it's around 1,000 meters above sea level. You know, I

518
00:32:53,448 --> 00:32:57,138
had Monsieur Arnaud, part of the

519
00:32:57,218 --> 00:33:00,780
French royalty family that you— I could have called him

520
00:33:02,625 --> 00:33:06,459
chevalier. No, I could have called him count. I forgot the

521
00:33:06,523 --> 00:33:10,165
first name, but he was making wine there. And there seems to have been a

522
00:33:10,165 --> 00:33:13,567
movement in Argentina about really

523
00:33:13,663 --> 00:33:17,497
testing the height up the Andes as to what's going to

524
00:33:17,513 --> 00:33:21,282
do. Yeah. And it seems— and I'm just wondering about

525
00:33:21,282 --> 00:33:25,051
the wine world, like the consumer, are

526
00:33:25,051 --> 00:33:28,836
they understanding that? I think so. What that means? I think so. Of course,

527
00:33:29,237 --> 00:33:32,893
there are different types of consumer. There are those who just like the taste of

528
00:33:32,989 --> 00:33:36,261
wine and don't want to get deep. And then there are others

529
00:33:36,613 --> 00:33:40,350
that like the story, like to understand. But definitely

530
00:33:40,446 --> 00:33:43,589
it's the same as talking about noble rot. There are people that

531
00:33:43,589 --> 00:33:47,359
understand that the world of complexity that it

532
00:33:47,359 --> 00:33:51,209
is, and other people that just want to taste a wine that creates an emotion.

533
00:33:52,092 --> 00:33:55,701
And so, yes, I think it's something that is very

534
00:33:55,701 --> 00:33:58,717
interesting for the— I mean, I find it fascinating, but I'm a wine guy all

535
00:33:58,749 --> 00:34:02,568
the time. So here's the analogy I was trying to talk to

536
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,354
you about lunch, and maybe I'll make it as short as I can, which is

537
00:34:06,931 --> 00:34:10,509
if you're in— and I came to this conclusion the other day

538
00:34:10,830 --> 00:34:14,428
watching a baseball game, and I realized that I

539
00:34:14,460 --> 00:34:18,027
understood everything that was going on on the field. I love the game. I study

540
00:34:18,172 --> 00:34:21,498
it. I've coached it. I read books on it. It's—

541
00:34:22,108 --> 00:34:25,723
I told my wife today, I said, I just love this game. As I

542
00:34:25,900 --> 00:34:29,723
study wine, I love the study of wine. But not everybody

543
00:34:29,723 --> 00:34:32,069
does that. So you go to the stadium, you go to your football stadium, there's

544
00:34:32,069 --> 00:34:35,700
50,000 people that obviously like football, but they're

545
00:34:35,700 --> 00:34:39,472
not interested in reading about it, They're studying it. They know when a good

546
00:34:39,536 --> 00:34:43,287
play happens, they cheer, and then they go home and they go

547
00:34:43,303 --> 00:34:46,590
back to their regular lives. And I think that's most of the wine-drinking public.

548
00:34:47,376 --> 00:34:49,781
They enjoy it. They want to know about it. They don't want to know too

549
00:34:49,797 --> 00:34:53,500
much about it because then it spoils the fun for them. So how do

550
00:34:53,500 --> 00:34:57,220
we get to those people to grasp onto the

551
00:34:57,236 --> 00:35:01,020
idea that we can serve Château Canon with chicken dinner on Sunday,

552
00:35:01,485 --> 00:35:05,028
or that it's not just dessert, or those kinds of things? How do we get

553
00:35:05,028 --> 00:35:08,688
that experience to them? First of all, I think that there is

554
00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:11,884
not the consumer of wine. There are

555
00:35:12,173 --> 00:35:15,868
plenty of different consumers. There are those that want to

556
00:35:15,868 --> 00:35:19,530
go very deep, those that want to go deep in

557
00:35:19,546 --> 00:35:23,337
technical things or in historical things, those that like the

558
00:35:23,337 --> 00:35:27,015
pairing with food, those that don't like to pair it with food, that

559
00:35:27,015 --> 00:35:30,822
just like to pair it with the moment and the view. And then

560
00:35:30,870 --> 00:35:34,660
there are young people, older people, people that are very savvy, people that

561
00:35:34,660 --> 00:35:38,482
are not. And so I think that we need to

562
00:35:38,514 --> 00:35:42,191
consider this because, as you said, it's like for a sport event, there are

563
00:35:42,191 --> 00:35:45,643
those who really are into the sport or those who are just into the

564
00:35:45,643 --> 00:35:49,480
event or the moment. And our job needs

565
00:35:49,512 --> 00:35:53,173
to be the one to be able to bring this story, the same story,

566
00:35:53,671 --> 00:35:57,252
to all of these different people, of course, in a different way.

567
00:35:57,846 --> 00:36:01,362
Without betraying who you are, but maybe adapting the speech

568
00:36:01,812 --> 00:36:05,553
to these different people. And definitely what you do is part

569
00:36:05,569 --> 00:36:09,229
of this. Oh, thank you. Bringing the story

570
00:36:10,064 --> 00:36:13,741
with a megaphone that is different than the megaphone that you

571
00:36:13,741 --> 00:36:17,530
use for other types of consumers. I think the most important

572
00:36:17,530 --> 00:36:20,597
thing is to educate in general, is to

573
00:36:21,062 --> 00:36:23,519
explain what makes your wine

574
00:36:25,060 --> 00:36:28,705
unique and why it has a

575
00:36:28,753 --> 00:36:32,237
story that is different from another wine. And I think the real

576
00:36:32,382 --> 00:36:35,882
base of everything, it's the education. And I really believe

577
00:36:36,235 --> 00:36:39,334
that our exercise, rather than commercial, is

578
00:36:39,912 --> 00:36:43,589
educational. Well, and I think that this

579
00:36:43,702 --> 00:36:47,138
is what's not saves the industries. I don't think it's in that much peril,

580
00:36:47,395 --> 00:36:51,200
but it's what it's what establishes

581
00:36:51,312 --> 00:36:54,699
this industry. And I had this conversation the other day. We were in Paris, we

582
00:36:54,699 --> 00:36:58,326
were at the local tourist bistro in front of the Eiffel Tower, Tour Eiffel.

583
00:36:58,936 --> 00:37:02,516
And they brought me a quiche that I ordered and

584
00:37:02,708 --> 00:37:06,416
I had to stop for a second because it was like my mother's quiche.

585
00:37:06,496 --> 00:37:10,188
My mother's a great cook and she always made quiche and I hadn't

586
00:37:10,188 --> 00:37:13,976
smelled it like this since then. And my wife's like, what's wrong with you? I

587
00:37:13,976 --> 00:37:17,235
said, you can't believe the memory that just brought back. And

588
00:37:18,455 --> 00:37:22,149
I think that we've developed those experiences and I don't

589
00:37:22,149 --> 00:37:25,811
think the experience, for instance, and I used to say this all the time,

590
00:37:26,004 --> 00:37:29,521
is buying a wine on the internet for $5. That's not the experience that you

591
00:37:29,521 --> 00:37:33,247
want to have. It's not having a pouch. I think we were discussing, I was

592
00:37:33,247 --> 00:37:36,379
discussing with Rafael that somebody came out with a pouch like a

593
00:37:36,523 --> 00:37:40,040
child's applesauce pouch and you squeeze the wine. That's not the

594
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,783
experience. And as part of the movement right now,

595
00:37:44,072 --> 00:37:47,277
Everybody's trying to find this either

596
00:37:47,597 --> 00:37:50,610
billion-dollar idea, which is around packaging

597
00:37:51,347 --> 00:37:55,065
or no alcohol or low alcohol or whatever they're trying to do, instead of

598
00:37:56,170 --> 00:38:00,016
developing the story, instead of telling the story, like, this is what it's about.

599
00:38:00,321 --> 00:38:03,910
I think so. I agree that the industry does

600
00:38:04,006 --> 00:38:07,596
have to be saved because it's not at that level. But what will

601
00:38:07,708 --> 00:38:11,522
keep the industry dynamic is definitely, I believe, much

602
00:38:11,634 --> 00:38:14,727
more educating and get the story out

603
00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:18,974
rather than find a solution with the pouch,

604
00:38:19,166 --> 00:38:22,755
as you said. I mean, with all due respect, of course, yes, of course, to

605
00:38:23,076 --> 00:38:26,649
all strategies. I'm not here to judge, just giving

606
00:38:27,338 --> 00:38:30,880
my vision. That's actually the reason why the packaging of

607
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,646
ICAM is still the same, because we believe that what we

608
00:38:34,646 --> 00:38:38,351
have to do is to bring the story. How many cases or

609
00:38:38,399 --> 00:38:42,219
bottles? You make 750s, 375s. I saw we were pouring Magnums

610
00:38:42,251 --> 00:38:45,846
today. What, um, how many bottles are you making? Uh, it

611
00:38:45,846 --> 00:38:48,879
depends. The average is between

612
00:38:49,537 --> 00:38:53,228
60,000 and 80,000 bottles per year. But to give you an

613
00:38:53,228 --> 00:38:56,775
idea, we prefer to speak about the

614
00:38:56,775 --> 00:39:00,338
average per plant, which is one glass

615
00:39:00,546 --> 00:39:04,271
per plant. While Okay. Per vine, while in Bordeaux

616
00:39:04,383 --> 00:39:07,819
usually is one bottle. One bottle per vine. Yeah. I

617
00:39:08,156 --> 00:39:11,143
used that analogy the other day. And so I go, what are you talking about?

618
00:39:11,464 --> 00:39:15,109
I go, yeah, you get one bottle of still wine per vine. And

619
00:39:15,221 --> 00:39:18,914
one of the questions I was going to ask today, which I didn't, was, what

620
00:39:18,914 --> 00:39:22,431
do you lose because the wines, the grapes are dried?

621
00:39:23,185 --> 00:39:26,059
And now you're telling me you get one glass, which is a fifth of a

622
00:39:26,059 --> 00:39:29,624
bottle. Yes. We lose a lot.

623
00:39:30,491 --> 00:39:34,232
We lose the old crop. Sometimes we have to

624
00:39:34,729 --> 00:39:38,438
renounce to the old production because the climate was

625
00:39:38,438 --> 00:39:42,195
not— and the quality was not the quality of ICAM. And

626
00:39:42,195 --> 00:39:45,277
so I think it's by being ready to

627
00:39:46,209 --> 00:39:49,628
lose a lot that you preserve also the promise

628
00:39:50,142 --> 00:39:53,738
of excellence of ICAM. And that's the price to pay to

629
00:39:53,771 --> 00:39:56,517
keep The excellence of what we can. So in the

630
00:39:58,171 --> 00:40:01,994
world of— I had Yves Delaunay here, nice guy.

631
00:40:02,829 --> 00:40:06,587
And, you know, he's been a luxury brand representative. I think he was

632
00:40:06,619 --> 00:40:09,350
with not Covassier, but

633
00:40:10,314 --> 00:40:13,622
with Louis XIII. Is that Covassier? Yeah.

634
00:40:15,148 --> 00:40:18,794
Is that a different world? The luxury brand, the LVMH

635
00:40:18,971 --> 00:40:22,681
world of marketing, the LVMH world of hotels, the LVMH world

636
00:40:22,761 --> 00:40:26,149
of wine. Is that a separate standard or it's just

637
00:40:26,551 --> 00:40:30,164
across the board? You guys are just doing the best you can to

638
00:40:30,164 --> 00:40:33,472
make the best you can? I think that the core

639
00:40:34,082 --> 00:40:37,358
of the approach is really the same, which is make

640
00:40:39,301 --> 00:40:41,998
as best as we can and

641
00:40:43,219 --> 00:40:46,944
have a long-term vision rather than just

642
00:40:47,008 --> 00:40:50,637
a short-term performance vision. And that's, I think, it's really what

643
00:40:50,926 --> 00:40:53,074
Mr. Arnaud has in mind for all his

644
00:40:53,347 --> 00:40:57,194
maisons. Then, of course, the way this is applied to

645
00:40:57,194 --> 00:41:00,785
each brand is very different because brands are very different. But the core

646
00:41:00,785 --> 00:41:04,472
values are the same, definitely across the board, and they are held by

647
00:41:04,648 --> 00:41:08,432
the family itself. So my daughter was— my friends are going to laugh

648
00:41:08,432 --> 00:41:11,013
at me because I bring this up quite frequently, but she went to Alain Ducasse

649
00:41:11,943 --> 00:41:15,758
pastry school outside of Lyon, and she baked in

650
00:41:15,790 --> 00:41:19,527
Paris. And in fact, I was watching Midnight in Paris,

651
00:41:20,184 --> 00:41:23,761
the movie, and her bakery is in the background of one of the shots.

652
00:41:23,809 --> 00:41:27,562
So I took a picture, sent it to her. But Alain Ducasse

653
00:41:27,562 --> 00:41:31,235
came into the, came into the bakery. It was just a corner bakery and

654
00:41:31,251 --> 00:41:35,004
tasted her wares. And she was, you know, liked them, all that. And I thought,

655
00:41:35,021 --> 00:41:38,501
how interesting is that? This guy is so involved with the

656
00:41:38,565 --> 00:41:42,334
brands that he would show up in a little corner bakery. And another

657
00:41:42,334 --> 00:41:45,702
friend of mine who was a sommelier at Louis XV in Monaco, I said I

658
00:41:45,702 --> 00:41:49,549
worked there a year, never saw him. But is there that kind

659
00:41:49,549 --> 00:41:53,380
of hands-on representation from corporate of LBMH to

660
00:41:53,380 --> 00:41:56,410
come see you, make sure you're doing the right thing? Yeah, of course.

661
00:41:57,949 --> 00:42:01,475
We have a certain degree of autonomy, but of course we

662
00:42:01,812 --> 00:42:05,339
belong to a group, to a family. And so we

663
00:42:05,339 --> 00:42:09,138
have a board of administration that looks after us.

664
00:42:09,667 --> 00:42:13,403
Plus we have plenty of interactions with the administrators,

665
00:42:13,435 --> 00:42:17,241
but also with other people of the group. And it's very, very valuable for us

666
00:42:17,369 --> 00:42:20,853
to have access to this incredible knowledge that is very

667
00:42:22,090 --> 00:42:25,686
cross-thinking in terms of skills that goes

668
00:42:25,735 --> 00:42:29,540
very, very, very far, especially because they all have

669
00:42:29,636 --> 00:42:33,153
also the respect for each maison.

670
00:42:33,907 --> 00:42:37,729
And so it's a strong mutual respect between those who have the

671
00:42:37,890 --> 00:42:41,673
very broad skills and those who know very well the place where they are.

672
00:42:41,753 --> 00:42:43,821
And I think that's the best of both worlds.

673
00:42:45,456 --> 00:42:48,902
What's next for you in the context of Château

674
00:42:48,918 --> 00:42:52,765
d'Yquem? I mean, tomorrow I'm out to Texas to

675
00:42:52,765 --> 00:42:56,565
continue to present the vintage. And in

676
00:42:56,597 --> 00:43:00,380
general, what's next? I think it's to continue to make

677
00:43:00,764 --> 00:43:04,307
the best wines as possible, one of the best wines in the world.

678
00:43:05,094 --> 00:43:08,114
I hope so. And to make it

679
00:43:09,736 --> 00:43:13,173
as environmentally friendly as possible and as

680
00:43:13,671 --> 00:43:16,739
socially valuable as possible.

681
00:43:17,783 --> 00:43:21,526
And then make this story of the noble rot shine

682
00:43:21,783 --> 00:43:25,333
around the world as much as possible. Actually, there's one last— one of the things

683
00:43:25,333 --> 00:43:28,063
I want to bring up, but I didn't bring it up and we'll wrap this

684
00:43:28,063 --> 00:43:31,292
up. But I think in the world of

685
00:43:31,661 --> 00:43:34,888
business, industry, doesn't matter, that

686
00:43:34,888 --> 00:43:38,421
sustainability, probably the wine industry is probably most

687
00:43:38,421 --> 00:43:42,001
susceptible, most inclined, and

688
00:43:42,034 --> 00:43:45,598
most obvious to be in the sustainable world. So Yquem

689
00:43:46,112 --> 00:43:49,709
has moved that direction. Yquem has always been

690
00:43:51,571 --> 00:43:55,200
animated by this idea of sustainability.

691
00:43:56,645 --> 00:44:00,145
Which for us means an environmental sustainability and a social

692
00:44:00,258 --> 00:44:03,758
sustainability. And environmentally-wise,

693
00:44:04,175 --> 00:44:07,692
we have never seen any herbicide. We have always

694
00:44:09,634 --> 00:44:12,862
fertilized our vineyards with manure produced on-site.

695
00:44:13,905 --> 00:44:16,892
And now since 2022, we are organic.

696
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,195
We also stopped to plow our soils. We work with COVID crops.

697
00:44:21,756 --> 00:44:25,140
We are very much engaged in a,

698
00:44:26,808 --> 00:44:29,951
in a plan that will divide by 2

699
00:44:30,913 --> 00:44:34,601
the total carbon footprint by 2030. So

700
00:44:34,842 --> 00:44:38,466
there are plenty of things that we do on that side, plus we are

701
00:44:38,755 --> 00:44:42,443
doing a lot of things to enhance the biodiversity of the estate

702
00:44:42,876 --> 00:44:46,404
in general. And on top of that, we believe that we

703
00:44:47,334 --> 00:44:49,886
have We need to preserve, sorry,

704
00:44:50,625 --> 00:44:53,900
our positive social

705
00:44:54,077 --> 00:44:56,597
impact. And so we

706
00:44:58,026 --> 00:45:01,607
have a team that it's made of almost 90 people,

707
00:45:02,281 --> 00:45:06,022
plus there is a community around ICAM, especially those speakers that come during

708
00:45:06,118 --> 00:45:09,875
harvest. There are 100 more people, plus there is

709
00:45:10,052 --> 00:45:13,150
all of our country, rural

710
00:45:13,343 --> 00:45:17,110
community. Around Château d'Yquem, plus we are in the

711
00:45:17,110 --> 00:45:20,764
French viticulture context, and we want to have a

712
00:45:20,972 --> 00:45:24,514
positive social impact on all of those circles. That's excellent.

713
00:45:25,123 --> 00:45:28,792
Somebody told me once, look at the glass is

714
00:45:28,888 --> 00:45:32,718
recycled sand and a cork is a recycled

715
00:45:32,750 --> 00:45:36,580
piece of bark, right? That's true, in a way. That's kind of part

716
00:45:36,580 --> 00:45:39,705
of the deal. Well, since you're headed to Texas tomorrow,

717
00:45:40,513 --> 00:45:44,246
My daughter just moved to Paris, Texas. Nice. They

718
00:45:44,455 --> 00:45:48,156
don't speak French there. No, they have an Eiffel Tower, though.

719
00:45:48,220 --> 00:45:51,421
It's a little tiny Eiffel Tower. And it's a very good community. It's about 2

720
00:45:51,437 --> 00:45:53,447
hours north of Dallas. Where are you going to be? You're going to be in

721
00:45:53,447 --> 00:45:56,921
Austin? Austin, Houston. And you're going to be doing similar thing. You're going to be

722
00:45:57,082 --> 00:46:00,825
tasting buyers and restaurant

723
00:46:00,825 --> 00:46:03,826
tours. Presenting the new vintage and spreading the word.

724
00:46:04,729 --> 00:46:07,156
Excellent. Such a pleasure to meet you and have you on the show. And I

725
00:46:07,156 --> 00:46:09,944
hope when we get out to Bordeaux next, which I will be there for sure,

726
00:46:11,863 --> 00:46:15,668
I was able to— when we were there for the Moët Perris,

727
00:46:16,503 --> 00:46:20,100
I would tell the Uber drivers, you know, I could live here. Je pourrais

728
00:46:20,196 --> 00:46:23,873
habiter là. And they're like, no, you don't want to. I'm

729
00:46:23,889 --> 00:46:27,695
like, no, for me, it's like, you know, it's a vacation. The grass

730
00:46:27,904 --> 00:46:31,420
is greener always on the other side. Exactly. Paris is

731
00:46:31,516 --> 00:46:34,872
wonderful. There's a little bit of traffic. And so when you're in,

732
00:46:35,145 --> 00:46:38,653
you complain about the traffic, but The city is fantastic,

733
00:46:38,685 --> 00:46:41,991
but it's not bad to live in Los Angeles neither. No, right.

734
00:46:42,701 --> 00:46:43,911
Thank you again. Cheers. Thank you.