Ep 250: Amazing Innovation in Champagne with Thibaut Le Mailloux of the Champagne Council

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2018

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week I'm joined by Thibaut Le Mailloux, Communications Director for the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) -- the Council that oversees the communications, grower relations and research and development for the Champagne region (www.champagne.com)

Your mind will be blown by some of the new things that are going on in Champagne to challenge climate change, especially. There are things in this podcast that I didn't know were going on, information about business issues and terroir that were fascinating. One of the most interesting conversations I've had the pleasure of having in a while.

Here are the show notes:

Thibaut discusses the mission of the Champagne Council and how the team works to accomplish it.
We discuss the various constituencies represented in but the Council and how the CIVC balances the interests to help everyone they represent

Then we talk about the region...

We address: what is it about the terroir of Champagne– the slopes, the climate, the soil that make it so unique?
We discuss sustainability and how climate change is affecting Champagne -- grape varieties, harvest times, etc.
- Thibaut offers some R&D information that I was really surprised by! This was a total scoop in the show on grape varietals!

We discuss the amazing 2018 harvest and why it was so important to Champagne
Thibault talks about how the growers and the big Champagne houses interact and what grower Champagne has done for the region

Then we talk business!

Thibault talks about how the international market for Champagne has changed over the years, the alternatives to Champagne and what they HAVEN'T done to Champagne's share and the role of China (another surprise!)
We discuss the "legal fraud" issue perpetrated by the US and the fight that Champagne conducts daily to protect its name

Finally, we discuss the future of the region (beyond the big, surprising ideas of R&D that we cover earlier).

A great show! Celebrate #Champagneday on October 19!!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for
0:08.0	downloading Wine for Normal People Radio,
0:10.0	the podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it.
0:14.0	I'm Elizabeth Schneider, a certified Silmaier and certified specialist of wine.
0:20.0	And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person.
0:23.5	Well, today on the show, we are very, very honored
0:26.2	to have Thibaut Le Mayo, communications director
0:30.6	for the Comité Professionals of Vind
0:34.0	the Champagne, the C-I-V-C, which is basically the Champaign Council.
0:39.0	And Tibo, I would love for you to tell us about you your life how you got into wine and also very
0:47.5	importantly what the C. I do see what's your mission I came into wine through international marketing of spirits because I used to work for an advertising agency or for advertising agencies during 10 years, mostly working for a Swedish, a famous Swedish
1:07.7	vodka brand and then I did work for a house of Konek in international marketing too. So it's the marketing
1:19.1	innovation aspect and the international experience which brought me to Champagne as my say I would say first step into the wine and as a lot of consumers I realized the day I started to be interested in
1:37.6	Champagne that I didn't know so much about it even as a French even as a French because we are supposed to have a wine culture. I think we have a wine consumption culture,
1:49.6	but knowledge is something you acquire and that's something that you inherit from.
1:55.0	My understanding from speaking with so many French people is that you really drink the wine that's local to you.
2:00.0	So you're very aware of what is in your neighborhood or in your you know wherever you live
2:06.1	unless you if you live in Paris you have access to more stuff but it's not always the
2:10.6	case that if you live in Rome you know what's going on in Champaign for instance isn't that true?
2:16.3	I think it's true but I think it's even worse than that with Champaign because Champaign I think every French has almost, hopefully has had the opportunity to taste Champagne at least once.
2:29.2	But the thing is the symbol of celebration of special moments of anniversaries and so on probably hides a little bit the
2:37.6	wine dimension of champagne so you may and this is my experience have been a consumer of Champagne for many many years and have never
	...

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