So, from 1973 to 1993, your father, Jean-Marie Malassagne, managed the estate?
Absolutely, he was the one who bailed out the business at arm's length.The 80s were a bit of a champagne boom, with sales skyrocketing.As sales prices rose, so did the price per kilo of grapes - an inflationary circle that worked as long as everything was going well.Except that in 1991, when the Gulf War was declared, everything went down, sales and prices, and in champagne there's a time lag between marketing and production.Bottles that had aged in the cellar came at a very high price. We end up with very expensive bottles sold at very low prices. Most of the Houses lose a lot of money, us as well as the others.My father was about to sell the vineyard and the house. I was working for L'Oréal at the time, and the idea of losing the estate was very distressing. Returning to my family's land made sense, and so, quite naively and spontaneously, I left my job in 1993 and returned to Damery, a village on the banks of the Marne, 4 kilometers from Epernay, the headquarters of Champagnes AR Lenoble.My father and I were to team up, his skills in the vineyards and wine-making and mine in the strategy and management of the company.Except that a few months after my arrival, my father fell ill and retired from the business. I found myself with the keys to the estate, probably a little too soon.
How did you manage the business on your own, without any training or experience?
I quickly put in place a strategy that we're still following today.It turned out to be a good one, but at first it was mainly intuitive. I reasoned with the memory of what I had heard, and what my father had told me.I tested and tasted a lot already. Then I realized that we were lucky to have an absolutely exceptional vineyard in Chouillyone of the 6 classified Grand Cru Chardonnay vineyards, andand Bisseuil, a Premier Cru village on the Montagne de Reims. My strategy is based on the premise that no one else will be able to do what I'm going to do, i.e. make wines exclusively from these great terroirs, in small areas and with lots of character.
How did you set about implementing this new strategy?
With my brother Antoine, who joined me in 1996, we worked together on this strategy.But in reality, once we'd worked it out and defined it, it took us a total of 25 years to get it right.It's simple: to produce wines with character and improve their quality, you have to work the vines.They have to express the terroir.The raw material, the fruit, the quality, the maturity, the taste of the fruit - it's ESSENTIAL!
We also worked the land to improve the quality of the soil and therefore of the vines.We quickly moved towards a soil biodiversity approach.The vines need good nutrients to feed themselves, and then we lowered yields.It took us 10 years to achieve the grape quality we wanted.Then, in 2012, we were certified HVE 3, thanks to a global approach that began in 2000.From the outset, we were deeply convinced of the need to respect nature, the soil and the grapes.
The second step was to work on vinification?
Absolutely, we started by blocking malolactic fermentation to achieve greater precision in the wines and greater expression on the finish.Then, in 2010, to enhance the freshness, minerality and precision of our wines, we began to age our reserve wines in magnums.This was very innovative in 2010.We age these wines for just over 6 years.After 6 years, we open the magnums by hand.We put this wine in a vat to await the blending of the year's harvest.Once the blending is done, we bottle the wine to set the bubbles in the final bottle, and leave for 4 to 6 years of ageing.For example, for MAG14, this means that the main harvest is 2014, MAG for ageing reserve wines in magnum.We bottled in 2015, for release in 2021.
