The CEO - Champagne Lanson

CHAMPAGNE The CEO

LANSON IS PART OF THE LANSON-BCC GROUP AND A GLOBAL POWER IN THE WORLD OF CHAMPAGNE. LAST YEAR, CEO AND 45 PER CENT SHAREHOLDER, BRUNO PAILLARD, RETIRED AND DRAFTED IN FRANÇOIS VAN AAL FROM REMY COINTREAU TO TAKE OVER AS PRESIDENT OF LANSON. AFTER A THREE MONTH CHANGE OVER, VAN AAL TOOK THE REIGNS OF THE 260-YEAR-OLD LABEL AND SET ABOUT MAKING HIS MARK. NOW ON A WORLD TOUR, ASSESSING ALL THE MARKETS, VAN AAL WAS RECENTLY IN AUSTRALIA VISITING THE TRADE AHEAD OF PROJECT L2020 - THE GLOBAL RELAUNCH OF CHAMPAGNE LANSON.

VAN AAL SAT DOWN WITH DRINKS TRADE TO RUN US THROUGH THE PLAN.

Words Ashley Pini

François Van Aal is comfortable here in Australia. It’s a market he understands well and, in his own words, is the place he spent…” possibly the best 18 months of my life”. He is referring to a Sydney-based work stint in the ‘90s, living in Rose Bay and enjoying the Australian way of life. “I had no money, but I was lucky as one of my friends had a job promoting to the nightclubs. It allowed me to see much more of the Sydney trade than I could afford at the time.”

This time around, Van Aal is working with Young and Rashleigh and Australian- based brand principal, Laurent Valy, to set in place the plans for the new-look Lanson range – hitting Australian shores this coming June.

You joined Lanson as president just over a year ago, how have you found the first year?

It’s gone exceptional quickly. The first thing was to move to Reims after joining Lanson. I used to live in Paris, and I worked for Remy Cointreau for 23 years. Up until six years ago, Remy owned Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck, so I was involved with champagne brands in terms of distribution and marketing.

Your first vintage was unusually hot in Europe – how have the grapes stood up to the temperatures?

So, 2019 is one of the best years ever. The potential, the maturity, the quality, and the acidity of the grapes were fantastic. The quantity is down, but the quality is one step ahead of 2018, which was an excellent year itself.

Lanson is known for ageing your wines. When should we expect to be drinking the 2019?

Our vintage releases are aged for ten years, so it will be 2029. Currently, we’re just running out of 2008 vintage of Lanson.

The Black Label is your Brut nonvintage and largest label?

Yes, the Black Label is the Brut non-vintage and 80 per cent of our sales. It’s aged for four years, which is quite long. We prefer to age for four years for the non-vintage, and then up to ten years for the vintage. We also go up to between ten and twelve years for the Noble Cuvee and the Clos Lanson. That’s how we get a reputation for ageing our wines longer; we believe it adds more character, but also because we have a style that favours aging.

How do you age the wines that long and keep your price point?

Well, we are very proud and confident in the quality of Lanson, which is second-tonone. Our challenge is to reduce the gap in the consumer’s mind between the quality of the wine and their perception, often driven by price. Champagne Lanson quality is up with the best; it costs more to buy the best

A part of the Lanson manifesto, “At Lanson, we’re among those that believe in love. Love for the soil, for the terroir, of a job well done. A sustainable love. A love of sharing, of being together, of making people happy.”

grapes, because to age, you need to. But for Champagne Lanson there is no compromise to quality. The work we are doing now is to communicate this to the consumer.

Tell me about the plan for 2020?

2020 is the year of the relaunch of Lanson in terms of brand platform positioning and visual. It also means in terms of range. We are going to reduce the range from 15 products to 10 products with a rework to the packaging look and feel. It’s a five-year plan, and 2020 is just the start.

In terms of the range, how will that affect retailers?

That’s a good question. The new range that we’ve put forward for 2020, we will have ten cuvee, today it’s 15. We’re reducing and making it more simple. Out of the ten cuvee, seven will be exclusive to on-trade and independent wine retailers, an imagebuilding channel. And only three products will be for the off-trade chains. The new range is launching in June 2020.

Can you tell me a bit about the Clos Lanson, and where it is situated?

The Clos Lanson site is close to the cathedral in Reims. It’s 100 per cent chardonnay, biodynamic, and only one hectare. We get around 7000 to 8000 bottles per year. Clos Lanson is 200 euros per bottle (AUD 310), so it’s high-end champagne and very special. It’s one of the three exceptional offers: Organic, Vintage, and Clos Lanson.

And the extra age non-vintage?

That was a range that we launched ten years ago for the 250th anniversary of Lanson. It wasn’t supposed to be long term, so we’re replacing that with the Black Reserve and the Blanc de Blanc core range, which means the consumers who want to go for the high end can move to the Noble Cuvee.

Is there an extra focus now on the Green label?

Absolutely. Today, I think that for global brands, especially in the luxury environment, and champagne is part of luxury, you must have global communication with the environment and sustainability at the heart of your strategy. You should be environmentally conscious and sustainable. You need to have social responsibility.

I think any company should have that in their DNA, but it’s a very fine line to walk. With this trend, some brands have used that for commercial purposes, increasing-price, or increasing sales, without the legitimacy and the authenticity of building a real strategy behind it.

Today, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. The visible part of the iceberg (strategy) is the Organic Green Label Cuvee from Lanson. We launched this four years ago, and although it’s a tiny part of our business, it’s an important part - because, in terms of image, communication, and caring, we are making a statement.

We believe that organic green label for the Australian market is a crucial asset for us to communicate what the values are of Lanson in respecting the planet, developing sustainable wine, and also showing that we have this know-how on treating wines in a biodynamic way.

Over the last five years, we have put in place a program to help our 421 growers and suppliers to Lanson move to “HVE” (High-Value Environment), which is a step towards biodynamic. It’s not as constraining as biodynamic, but it’s a strong statement of intent.

I think by 2030, in 10 years from now, all champagne will be HVE. HVE means the winegrowers recognize and work for long term sustainability and taking care of the land.