◆Why did you put a priority on writing the history of de Venoge?When I became President I needed to understand the history, philosophy and DNA of the brand to get it right.de Venoge was very innovative in its time ‒ we created the first illustrated label in Champagne in 1838, the crystal decanter in 1858, and registered 5,000 brands in 1864.Today, because we know our history, we are very confident. The market looks for authenticity and we have it. It is expressed in the three lines of Champagne that we make, Louis XV, Princes and Cordon Bleu.President Gilles de la Bassetiere with a bottle of Louis XV in Maison de Venoge on Avenue de ChampagneMaison de Venoge ◆ Why is Cordon Bleu so important?Cordon Bleu is synonymous with the Maison. You can see it in the label design which we have used since we first made Cordon Bleu. It symbolizes the Venoge River in Switzerland that recalls our founder, Henri Marc de Venoge, and his goal of making superior Champagne. For me, the Brut NV is very important because it is the signature of the House. Very often if you taste the NV and it is good, it means the rest of the range will be even better.For Cordon Bleu we make a major investment in using only the first pressing of the grapes, so it requires 1.5 kg instead of the normal 1.2 kg of grapes to make one bottle. It gives the blend a really good quality, there is none of the bad acidity of pressed juice, and that is important. In the Cordon Bleu range we have Brut, Rose, Blanc de Noir, and Extra Brut ‒ which is same base as the Brut but with one year more aging and a dosage of 3.5 g/l. We usually blend 20-30 percent reserve wine with the base wine. 50percent of the reserve wine is from one year prior to the base wine, and the remaining 50 percent is from two years prior.Cordon Bleu Brut NV◆ How did you evolve the Louis XV and Princes ranges?I registered the name of our top cuvee Louis XV in 2005. Given the history of the Royal Decree of Louis XV on Champagne and the available documentation, I wanted the name because it was a great story. With prestige cuvees it is not only the wine in the bottle, but also the history behind it and the legend you build.Until 1993, de Venoge’s prestige cuvee was 100 percent Chardonnay in a green glass bottle. In 1995, the new cuvee was going to be in a clear glass decanter, and the blend changed to 50 percent Chardonnay and 50 percent Pinot Noir. So on top of being a great name with a great legend, there was also the opportunity to launch Louis XV in the new bottle. We released our first wine in 2005 with the 1995vintage, and then the 1996 and so on, and that is how the Louis XV started.We have had the Princes name for a long time, and people knew of it because it has been sold in a decanter since 1961. In 2008 we introduced the first bottles of the extended Princes range, Blanc de Blanc, Blanc de Noir and Rose, and Extra Brut a year later. The Princes are made from 70 percent Premier Crus and 30 percent Grand Crus except for Les Rises village. It is aged in the bottle for 48 to 60 months, which is an extended aging period for a non-vintage cuvee.◆ What is the story behind the carafe bottle?In Champagne quality is very important, but so too is image. For de Venoge, having a distinctive bottle is critical to our appeal. The idea for the carafe comes from 1858 when de Venoge was supplying Champagne to the Royal family in Holland. They used a crystal decanter made by Crystal Saint Louis (the oldest glass making manufacturer in Europe founded in1586) to decant their Champagne because the remuage then was not as good as today, so they still had some deposits in the bottle and used to decant. We have some examples of the original crystal bottle in the office. In 1961, we reproduced this special decanter to make it a bottle.We thought that Princes needs a special touch, so we adopted this carafe-type bottle. Inside de Venoge, we call it a ‘production nightmare’ because every thing has to be customized especially for this bottle. The bottom is as large as Jeroboam(3L), while it is not as high as normal bottles, so special equipment that matches is necessary for every process including tirage, remuage, disgorgement and storage. For remuage the machine that normally handles 500 bottles can only handle 200bottles.In addition, some people say the bottle shape makes it unstable for stocking and storing, but at de Venoge we believe that Champagne should be stored up right. At our Maison, the bottles are always stored upright after disgorgement and in shipping. When wine comes into contact with the cork it impacts the elasticity of the cork, and there is a risk of cork taint. Other Champagne houses keep their bottles upright after disgorgement, but lay them down for shipping. However, recently Don Perignon started shipping their bottles upright, and we expect many others will adopt this approach soon.Princes (Blanc de Noir) and Louis XV in carafe bottle ◆How have you evolved de Venoge’s Champagne style?When I became President in 2005 I decided to change the de Venoge style a little. At that time it was well known for heavy wines, the older vintages were on the muscular side, they were good but not very elegant. The idea was to make them more elegant and fresher, because I think the consumer today loves the freshness and wants to drink it more often.To do this, first you have to find a good Village and good grapes, and of course to know which Village to use you need to have the experience. In tasting vin clair(clear wines) before assemblage I realized some of the Pinot Noir like Verzenay and the Chardonnay like Mesnil were very elegant, but they needed something to elevate them a little. So, for example, we added a little Chardonnay from Trépail and Pinot Noir from Les Riceys.With buying grapes, the growers are very important and you have to create a special relationship, as they can easily sell their Premier and Grand Cru grapes to other producers. For this reason I take care of grower relations personally, and over 20 years have created relationships with the growers, and also with their children, as the next generation takes over the family business.For Cordon Bleu we have also lowered the dosage a lot, and today it has the lowest dosage possible for Brut of 6.1 g/L, which also contributes to the elegance and style.The Louis XV is a simple blend, 50 percent Pinot Noir and 50 percent Chardonnay, 100 per cent Grand Cru, aged in the bottle for 10 years. I wanted more freshness in this wine too, so starting in 2008 , I decided to go non-malolactic, which was a significant change.Disgorgement gives the Louis XV a range of expression that still wines can’t match. We are one of the only Houses to disgorge our finest wine over time, as most of the leading Houses disgorge the complete vintage in one go. Disgorgement is like surgery. When you have surgery on an old person it takes more time to recover than with a younger person. So if you disgorge a Cordon Bleu you can wait 3 months, but after disgorgement on a Louis XV 1996 it is good to wait one to two years before it recovers. With the current 2008 release of Louis XV we made exactly 10,246 bottles, and disgorged 5,000 bottles for the first round, and will disgorge 3,000 bottles for the second round, and keep2,000 bottles for the future.We had a big problem in 2004 with 20-30 percent of the Louis XV magnum bottles exploding in the cellar. After 10 years in court with the glass manufacturer we finally won damages due to a defect in the glass. Since then not many glass manufacturers wanted to make this bottle, because it is very difficult to make. Finally we found a company in 2018 to make the magnum, and we bottled 5,000magnums of Louis XV 2018. It will be released in 2028.Champagne is a time-consuming business that requires a long-term view. When you do something in Champagne, you have to look 10 years ahead. In order to further develop the business in the future, we may consider selling the to pcuvée de Venoge en primeur like Bordeaux, and store and age the Champagne for customers.Inside Hotel de Venoge - guest can stay in one of four luxury suites located on the same grounds as Maison de Venoge《From Village Cellars》de Venoge became part of the BCC (Boizel Chanoine Champagne) Group in1998. In 2006 the Group bought Lanson Champagne, and with the share holders attention focused on Lanson, Gilles was given a free hand at de Venoge to develop the business, and introduced Louis XV and Princes around this time. More recently, in 2015 de Venoge acquired a beautiful old maison sitting on 2100square meters of land in the Avenue de Champagne, which is classified by UNESCO World Heritage as a Living Cultural Landscape. Originally built in 1901, de Venoge renovated the interior in period style, and it is now the company’s main office. As we wrote in the Autumn Catalogue story, two buildings on the site we reconverted into a hotel and café, and the garden restored and opened to the public. With a young president making smart investments while looking far in to the future, the long-term prospects of de Venoge are in very good hands