Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Let's go. Hi, Guillaume.

• Speaker #1

  Hi, Antoine.

• Speaker #0

  Thank you very much for welcoming us here at Bound Road Shield. So we are super happy to do this interview in France and in Champagne, especially. As I told you, we've been in Asia for the last year, actually, so we've traveled a bit. But it's always good to come back to France and especially in Champagne. So thank you very much for today.

• Speaker #1

  You're welcome. It's a pleasure for me to be with you today, Antoine, and to speak about our wine.

• Speaker #0

  We'll talk about a lot of things. Baron Rothschild is an iconic place in Champagne. But we have plenty of different topics first. Can you start by introducing yourself?

• Speaker #1

  For sure. So I'm Guillaume Letté. I'm 38. I was born in Champagne and hired in Champagne. And so... I make study about the wine and spend some harvest outside in Bordeaux, in California. And in 2011, I come in this project like intern and I never less. And I was appointed head winemaker in 2016. and since now 10 years I'm in charge of so viticulture, energy, production and so it's a good job.

• Speaker #0

  So when did you arrive at Baron Rothschild?

• Speaker #1

  In 2011.

• Speaker #0

  Okay so five years later you were already head of winemaking.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah yeah.

• Speaker #0

  How was Baron Rothschild when you arrived? Did you come just because it was like kind of good project and you wanted to change things or like? what was the motivation behind joining?

• Speaker #1

  So it was just the beginning because, you know, the Royal Trout Champagne was founded in 2005. So in 2011, it was like the beginning of the production. In the past, it was like maybe five hectares in terms of production. So it was quite small. And what was very interesting for me, like a younger... technical uh was to to to build the things to to learn and to uh to give all uh all my uh my knowledge and to to learn in same times uh about uh with uh this new project inside the the champagne region so it was very interesting and very good uh day after day to to to live this uh this adventure

• Speaker #0

  In turn, this place does not exist yet.

• Speaker #1

  No, no.

• Speaker #0

  How was the house back then?

• Speaker #1

  It was just beginning. So we share a place, we hang over in Vertu. And years after years, we build our selection of grabs inside the Champagne DC, in Montagne de Reims, North, South exposition, and here in Côte des Blancs. And day after day, years after years, we stay focused on building wine philosophy, the way of winemaking, different material of winemaking, stainless steel, oak, concrete, select the forest in France, select the copper, select whatever, a lot of different... uh details but uh to build to try to build a great wine in fact at the end so it was a lot of a lot of subjects and uh here now we we we have a this new new place this new winery to to try to to go deeper and deeper in detail and day after day to increase increase our wine

• Speaker #0

  When you say you're... building the like kind of the the parcels the the selection yeah that you have do you work with uh growers or do you okay so you so when you say that it's basically you go see growers i guess they have contracts already with other houses and stuff and you're like yeah you know you couldn't even send your grapes to us as well yes um there is two two

• Speaker #1

  way um first we bought some land and to have our own vineyard in property, which is... Now, less than eight hectares in Grand Cru village and here in Vertu. But on the other side, we established a really good relationship with some good family wine producers to share the same objectives, the same philosophy in terms of wine construction. Years after years, we select and we have good relationships with these people to try to go in the same way and in the way of the wine.

• Speaker #0

  You mentioned just before the different places in which you have vines. So you mentioned Vertugues, you mentioned also Grand Cru Appellation. For people watching, can you describe a bit how Champagne is structured? So you have like three main regions, but then you have like Grand Cru and everything. Can you give us a bit more details on that?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, in Champagne, you have 34,000 hectares. for I tried Champagne, the projection is roughly 65-70 hectares. So you see the difference. So we are always very focused on Grand Cru and First Cru Village. Just stay focused 70% on Chardonnay in our wine and 30% of Pinot Noir. Inside the Champagne region in general, you have a 30% of Pinot Noir, 30% of Pinot Meunier, and 30% of Chardonnay, and a few percentages of all previous grape varieties. But in general, you have the Marne region with the Montagne de Reims, North, South exposition. Then you have the Vallée de la Marne, which is a place well represented by Meunier. And here in Côte de Blanc side, we are in the In Chardonnay land, they focus on the Schalk. And this is a historical place for the Chardonnay. And then you have the Hope region and you have the Aisne region. And the Cezanne with a lot of Chardonnay too. And Vitria in the same times.

• Speaker #0

  And on the different level of appellation, so you have some Grands Crus, which are villages, if I'm not wrong. that are established like a list of...

• Speaker #1

  Yes, you have 17 Grand Cru villages and you have 44 First Cru villages. So it's a very small part of the region because in general you are more than 300 villages in Champagne. So we stay focused here in the historical and the old place of Champagne. It's a choice that we make for different reasons, but you can have good champagne in all the places in Champagne.

• Speaker #0

  So you told me you were born and raised in Champagne, but you went to Bordeaux and California.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  You didn't want to stay in Bordeaux or California just to come back?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, I wanted to come back. I love my region. I love to live here. I spent a good time and I learned a lot of things in Bordeaux and California to see different vision, different technique of winemaking sometimes. And, you know, wine is sharing, so it's good to see what is done outside of our region sometimes.

• Speaker #0

  What did you see in Bordeaux and California that then you wanted to apply in Champagne? Not in Champagne.

• Speaker #1

  It's a good question. I think it is difficult to just define a full example. You know, wine is in detail, so each detail counts. And when you go outside, you see a lot of things that we are not usual to do, by the way. Some of them are interesting in your side and in your way of production. Some of them are interesting. it's a place when you see that but not for you but um yes it is always good to to to be open-minded about a lot of things and in wine it's the same yeah absolutely the difference for you is that you have two fermentations so maybe it's difficult also yeah like inspiration from bordeaux

• Speaker #0

  and california where they need to like push their wine to the end uh in uh in just uh maybe to resume,

• Speaker #1

  I've, I always keep in mind that to try to build a Grand Vin, you have to be in detail. And if you are in Bordeaux, you are in California, you are in Champagne, you are in Burgundy, you have to be in the detail of each step, which choice you make at that moment inside the vineyard. To try to be at the top at the end, I think is the common rules. all over the world.

• Speaker #0

  Can you describe a bit what is your job as head winemaker in a champagne house? So basically, you're making the wine, as said, so I guess you're tasting every day. You're like having... um decisions to make on uh which reserve wine to use for this specific champagne but can you give us a bit more details uh about basically what is your job yes um so my job is to to

• Speaker #1

  my job is to to start to the vineyard to to the bottle in the clients so um i think uh to resume is to to be connected. to the vineyard to be connected to the winegrower and then for sure to make the right choice at the right moment at each step of the vinification. In my opinion we did the wine inside the vineyard and after we are here to try to make the right choice but we have to To leave the wine express itself, so to not make a lot of intervention, but just make the right choice to be sure that every step goes the right way. After that, tasting for sure, testing to see the potential, testing to see the aging, testing to try to make the right balance for the blend. And always to keep in mind that champagne, like you said just before, is always a link between past, present, future. So you have always to keep that in your mind for the reserve, to build the reserve for the future. And sometimes to have your own personality about the years is a fact. And then to be sure that when you will... Make your right choice for the bottling and for the disgorging, because disgorging is always very important. You are in the right balance.

• Speaker #0

  Maybe for people listening, this is interesting because you mentioned different steps of the process of making champagne.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  But can we just take a moment on this and do a bit of pedagogy on how to make champagne?

• Speaker #1

  Oh, okay.

• Speaker #0

  So basically, you harvest grapes. This is normal. for every time. But then, what happens?

• Speaker #1

  So, champagne, the harvest is all by hand, first. And we press the grabs by units of 4,000 kilograms of grabs per press. And you will obtain 20.5 hectoliters of cuvée, which is the most quality part of the juice. And 5 hectoliters of thai. Thai, you know, is a juice near you from the skin and the tannic structure. So we don't choose it here, but it could be used in different objectives. And then you start after racking to have a clear juice, you start alcoholic fermentation. You can do always the malolactic fermentation to maybe have a different style in your wine. We did it. And then you have aging period on lease for us. And you make your tasting, you make your choice, you blend with the years because we produce most of our Champagne, our non-vintage one. And then you process to the bottling. So during the bottling, we add. a little bit of sugar with a little bit of yeast to provoke a new fermentation in bottle. And in this second fermentation, the gas can go outside of the bottle, so it is integrated inside the wine. That's the sparkling. And after this second fermentation, which is called prise de mousse, You have an aging period. For the rules, it's minimum... Three years? No, for the rules, it's 15 months. Oh, okay. For the rules, but for us, it's four years. It's a choice depending on what you do. After this aging period in bottle, you process to riddling. Riddling, you know, is to collect the sediment yeast that died inside the bottle and to... to be sure that the wine is perfectly clear after. And we adjust the dosage. If you did Brut Nature, Extra Brut 1 or Brut, whatever, you put your cork and the wine after.

• Speaker #0

  time rest is ready to to be drink amazing i think it's a perfect pedagogy for people watching this and wanting to know more about champagne and what is actually behind that bottle because we we don't always imagine that there is this second fermentation and this is how champagne happens one of the thing that is i feel very interesting about this house is that it's actually pretty recent among the champagne houses yes how do you manage the reserve wine? So the reserve wine, it's actually still wine that you just manage in like big tanks for a long time. And then you can assemble that whenever you need it and for the champagne to kind of always have the same taste and low variability in it. How do you manage to have enough reserve wines? And you know, like, how do you manage this when the house is this young?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, so it's a good question for sure. We tried like young us to have a different way of thinking about that. We can move the line. So we started to build our wine reserve philosophy with the idea to be flexible, you know, climate change. So we have more contrast vintage right now. And so the things that we decide to build a reserve perpetual of each cuvee. By example, for this Blanc de Blanc, we have the historical reserve perpetual from this blend, since a small part from the beginning. So start in the very early time of the house. and we play with this reserve perpetual to use it in different percentages to try to always to be constant in terms of expression and to don't feel the difference and that's the first part from...

• Speaker #0

  Just to understand so in the previous houses that I visited they have reserve wines for each year not each year but they have like reserve wines I don't know.

• Speaker #1

  that they use then in the future they blend together at this moment you the difference that you have reserved perpetual it means reserve of this blend yes that you can okay yes this is the same blend like this this one but from the previous years and we make a different edging on that and in the other side we have like you you say some of kind of terroir pure expression one plot, one graph varieties, one village from one year. that we keep for the future, like adjustments, like in the kitchen, you know, to make the final adjustment between the years, the reserve perpetual system, and then the terroir pure.

• Speaker #0

  I never heard about a reserve perpetual. I thought it was like you were keeping reserve wines from each year, and then deciding the time that you did that. It's true that it's a smart way to always have the same amount.

• Speaker #1

  Yes, and it's a way, you know, in terms of cold vintage expression. By example, you will use more reserve perpetual from the cuvee when the wine years was more open, more juicy, more express. And so you can adapt like this and you can try to balance.

• Speaker #0

  the nose and the mouth in terms of structure and same time around this this way of remaking we are just in front of some some vines here i don't know if you guys can see that but don't worry there will be a post on instagram or something like that so you will be able to see what i'm talking about so we are just above Le Grand Clos.

• Speaker #1

  Le Grand Clos.

• Speaker #0

  Which is your Grand Cru, your most exclusive cuvee.

• Speaker #1

  Yes, we launched Le Grand Clos this last summer from the 19 vintage. So this place is very typical from Champagne. This is a small plot with... very thick clay soil before going into short dimensions. You have the influence from the world at the same time, so you have a very mature area. very close to the walls that reflect the sun. So it's a material expression on that place. In the opposite, you have the beginning of the slope of Vertu, so more windy area. So it's more cold in terms of expression. So you have different flowing period and different cycle in terms of vegetation. moment. And third part, more intermediate, inside the middle of the plot. So it's like a micro climate that you can have inside the Burgundy approach. So it's a place very, very neutral.

• Speaker #0

  And you see this difference, then you have to do different harvest. even different fermentation?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, we did the harvest in two or three times because it's a different way of expression and we have to be very close about the right moment to pick the crops and to start to make the wine after. So it's very...

• Speaker #0

  For people listening, you will see in the video and on your screen, it's a very, very small place. So it's very impressive that you have these different expressions just inside this small wall. And I think it's a very good example of what terroir actually is. We always say terroir is the soil, the climate, and the people shaping it. And this is a very, very good example because you have, obviously, the soil, the planet, but you also have this wall that represents the people who shaped this place and that has an impact on your pint.

• Speaker #1

  For sure. It's a good example because all is linked. So we have to consider all in your reflection. And this is very funny, interesting. Blah. And this is the life of the place. So it's very good in the same time.

• Speaker #0

  Let's come back to this place. So you told us that just before the interview, we were chatting a bit. And you told us that this winemaking facility has been finished very recently.

• Speaker #1

  Yes, we started to vinify here in 2024. And this... This place is an old place of the Champagne. This basement was established in 1874. So it was like a traditional, I will say, place from Champagne. We have a lot of beautiful place inside, beautiful cellar and the well place inside the slope. So it's perfectly adapted. for our vision of the philosophy of Rottschild winemaking here in Champagne, to be very close, you know, to the history, to be close to the terroir, to be close to the plots, to the wine river. And then here it's a lot of possibility, you know, to split this personality expression and to have big possibility after. We use three different kinds of of rail making. We have stainless steel for sure but we have concrete, we have barrels and we use all this possibility to be very close to the terroir and to the wine to make a long... edging during the first step of the life of the wine and then to build our wine until the bottling.

• Speaker #0

  How did you, so the house is pretty recent. How did you build your distribution?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, the distribution is done by ourselves inside the house. And we, you know, we... We are from the Mouton Rothschild branches, Lafitte Rothschild branches and Helmand Rothschild branches. So they are connected links for sure. But we make the distribution in 90 different countries and in France in the same too, by yourself. And it's a very selective distribution.

• Speaker #0

  So you have a team of people working on that internally? Yeah. Okay. How do you collaborate with these other branches and these other houses? So there are plenty of winemaking facilities around the world.

• Speaker #1

  For sure.

• Speaker #0

  How do you discuss together?

• Speaker #1

  Yeah. How do you work together? We work well, of course. So we are very close. we We share about a lot of things. And inside the commerce, inside the vision, we are close to the family at the same time. And we share also the technical part sometimes for one subject. It depends. But we are the only... Champagne, that there is three branches of the Rothschild family together. And it's really a project from the earth for the family. Ah,

• Speaker #0

  but so, okay. So Baron Rothschild is owned by...

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, the three branches.

• Speaker #0

  Ah, that's super fun.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, it is.

• Speaker #0

  That's an amazing project for them to do, to be together. because we... So we've made some interviews and meetings, but it was mostly in the DBR group. So in Bordeaux, I told you a bit before in China as well. But so Barneau-Rochelle is external to that. I'm sure you still talk to these people. Okay. That's very interesting. And so you also have three facilities in Champagne.

• Speaker #1

  We have three places here in Champagne. We have this place in Rennes-Vertu. for all the wine making and until start to the press and go to the bottling. After that the bottle move to Auger which is a five minute drive from here. We have a semi-board equipment, battement, very sustainable semi-board inside the Schork and with all the storage. riddling, disgorging, labeling department. And all is shipped from Auger. And the third place for us here in Champagne is in Reims, the office with the commercial department, financial, marketing team, and it's a good place too. It's all the basement.

• Speaker #0

  So actually if people want to visit Ballon d'Auchille, they should come here? I don't know, they're just two different places because seeing the bottling and like it looks more like logistic place.

• Speaker #1

  Yes, for sure. But yes, we have some experience now ready to be proposed for the people here in Vertu. You have to make an appointment for sure and to reserve. But people can come here in Vertu and to see and discover how we... We did our wine and I think it's a good place for that.

• Speaker #0

  I'm sure they will have an amazing time discovering this place and being in the heart of Champagne. We haven't seen that much yet. We'll do this just after together. But it's definitely an amazing place to discover Champagne and those slopes are absolutely stunning. So you've been working... in this house for already Like, what, 10 years?

• Speaker #1

  More, because we started in 2011. 15 years? Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  15 years. Do you see yourself staying in the house for 15 more years?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, for sure, I hope. Yes, you know, we work in the long term. So when you enter in the project, you want to... to work in long term and we share the same value so i think all the ingredients are here to to work a long time again okay because you could also feel that the not that the game is over but you know you started in

• Speaker #0

  15 years ago yes now you have these new facilities everything is set up everything that's running? No.

• Speaker #1

  No, never set up. We never arrive. We are young. We have a lot of things to do for the host to grow again and to be more precise, to be more and more for all of the subjects. And I think there is a lot of things to be done for the future.

• Speaker #0

  So what are your main challenges today?

• Speaker #1

  I think today the best thing that we have to do is to be stable and to take a higher position higher point of view to see what we can adjust again because we went very fast since 10 years now and that um, a good moment for that to to make um to prepare the future to restart and we have a lot of subject in terms of winemaking we have a lot of subject in terms of vineyard and so um it's uh it's difficult to to give you an example but it's a lot of additional things that we have to increase increase again and to make well know our brand. to make well-known houses here in Champagne and outside. And to establish the house inside the other house, like a big one.

• Speaker #0

  One of the things is Comité Champagne.

• Speaker #1

  Yes.

• Speaker #0

  In Champagne, it's probably one of the most powerful associations of houses and winemakers in France, but also abroad. Adios.

• Speaker #1

  work with them when you start such a such a house or such a brand um we we are in contact and they help us and they are they are very interesting and and very happy i think to see that that project to see the things that we do the things that we want to do i think it's a it's a good And... new way of thinking about what is possible to do in Champagne sometimes. And they help us in some subject from this construction, from this way of thinking about some subject example on the press, on something like this. And so we are close.

• Speaker #0

  Great. I think we made a nice cover on Baron Rothschild. do we have behind the camera do we have questions from mine or from our intern no more questions is there something we didn't mention but that was important for you about this place or about Baron Richard in general

• Speaker #1

  I think we speak a lot but no maybe to sum up I will give you some highlight points that we share inside the house so you 70% of Chardonnay in our blend stay focused on Grand Cru and Fers-Cru village. We try to make champagne focused on purity, very fine, delicate, but with personality in sometimes. It's more in winegrower philosophy, I think, because production is very limited. And we try to have the full expression of different place, different plots, different way of wine making. We speak about that a few minutes ago. And then a long aging period, because for me it's very important, you know. And then to try to make a very grand vin at the end, like inside the Rothschild family in general.

• Speaker #0

  And we didn't talk that much. Thank you. Thank you for this. We didn't talk actually that much about the different wines that you have. So I see that you have three, six, seven, eight, eight different wines. Maybe in a few words, if you could describe.

• Speaker #1

  Describe, yeah. We have a first part of the range is around the Concordia, which is our brute. It's a blend about 60% of Chardonnay, 40% of Pinot Noir. In all our wines, you will always find the same rule. It's 40% of reserve, which is a high-level percentage to try to be very stable year after year. After that, you have the Blanc de Blanc, like this bottle, with 100% for sure from Chardonnay for the Côte de Blanc. And Rosé, which is like Blanc de Blanc Rosé. and just uh 94% of Chardonnay and just 6% of red vinification from Pinot Noir, from Montbonnet. And some of less production cuvées after, Brut Nature, which is a wine building to be done without any sugar added. A Triptych, which is a new approach, I will say, about the vintage vision. it's photography I put three main Grand Cru that we love to have which is Avis from the Chardonnay and Bonnet from the Pinot Noir and so it shares the ideas to make like a photography about the viticulture condition. Yes, we did it, we started in 18 and until now there is just 21 that we don't have but it's like a very fast uh, photography about this evolution due to the climate for sure on this tree village and then we have the raw collection cuvee which is a declinate in blanc de blanc or in rosé it's a very small production stay focused on on four grand village which is a cramont aviz og and menil sur og different proportion depending of the years so more um, Powerful wine, more edging, and we use a little bit more of oak inside this blend. And at the end, we speak about that a few minutes ago, we have Le Grand Clos, which is a monopole. And we launched the first Opus in June 25 on the 19 vintage.

• Speaker #0

  so we have a Good champagne for every moment of tasting and for every situation, for every dish, for every celebration also as well, for very fine experience in other places or in other times. Thank you very much for this, Guillaume. It was a super interesting conversation about this house and about champagne also in general. Thank you, Antoine. I hope you guys learned some things. It was the goal of this conversation. I have three last questions that are always the same. The first one is, do you have a book recommendation about wine, preferably?

• Speaker #1

  Okay. I love 30 Second Wine from Gérard Basset, which is an approach very easy about the wine world, to learn about properties, to learn about the wine place, and very accessible. And I think in wine, This point is very interesting because the wine is to share and you have to keep that in your mind. So I recommend this for sure.

• Speaker #0

  Thanks. I never checked it. So I will after this interview. Do you have a recent tasting that you love? Something that stays in your mind?

• Speaker #1

  I have a lot. I have two wines that I recently tested. We can share. I tested recently Echezo from Mignard-Gibourg in 1922. It was delicious, very fine, delicate, deeper, but powerful at the same time inside the young life of the wine because it was quite new. 1922 is a young wine, but it was very well integrated in terms of expression. I love it. And the second wine, it's a little bit opposite in terms of age. I had a chance to test recently Lafite Rothschild 89. So it was wonderful. I think the age doesn't impact the wine, so it was deeper. very softy at the same time so and very powerful but delicate so it's a it's a It's full expression of Pauillac, and so I love it too. So it's two big wines that I recently tasted.

• Speaker #0

  Amazing. And finally, who is the next person I should interview?

• Speaker #1

  I think today we speak a lot about Chardonnay. And in Champagne, I would love to hear about Pinot Noir from Ambonnet. from Antoine Coutier, Champagne RH Coutier, which is a good friend of me, by the way. And I think he has a good idea on Pinot Noir side.

• Speaker #0

  Amazing. We'd love to go see him. If you guys loved this interview, don't forget to share it and subscribe. Subscribe so that we can go see Antoine and that you don't miss this interview. Guillaume, thank you again for this conversation. It was an amazing moment. And thank you for letting us discover this beautiful house. If you guys are in Champagne, don't forget to make a stop here. Call before or go to the website. I'm sure you will find everything. If you love this interview, also try to find a bottle of Barmoged to taste it at the same time. Guillaume, thanks again and see you soon.

• Speaker #1

  You're welcome. Thank you, Antoine. See you.