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 ‘My grandfather and his other family members owned several businesses under the Taittinger group including a chain of Concorde hotels that rivalled Accor Group in France.’ I had asked him why Taittinger was not sold to Vijaya Mallya of Kingfisher fame, now in disrepute.
‘Taittinger champagne business was a very small part, of the whole business,’ says Clovis Taittinger, sitting next to me at the dinner table. ‘ My grandfather and his brothers had some disagreements and the business was sold off in 2005 to the American company Starwood Capital which started selling of the business in bits and pieces. That upset my father and perhaps even the champagne industry which does not like to lose balance and was not happy about Taittinger Champagne House sold off too. That was the time when Starwood had planned to sell it to Vijay Mallya who was the highest bidder. My father Pierre Taittinger bought the business back in co-operation with a bank. And as you know Mallya bought another of the group companies, Bouvet Ladubay from Starwood’. Taittinger family bought it back with Credit Agricole for a reported amount of €660 million.
This was the first visit of Clovis to India. As he says, ‘it was Sumit (Director of Prestige Wines) who has been pushing me to come and I am glad I am here. I haven’t seen much of India but I like it here because I see there are vast emotions here. However, I am surprised why everyone keeps on asking me how I like India!’
Taittinger family owns about 300 hAs of land in Champagne out of which about 60% is Grand Cru. He admitted that they use 50% of grapes from their Estate and buy 50% from the farmers. ‘99% of the grapes used for our wines are first press.’ But what do they do with the second press in that case? ‘We trade them against first press,’ he says as I am wondering how it is feasible.
 Taittinger House makes 6 million bottles a year, 75% of which are exported. To get a better perspective, he tells me that Moet Chandon makes 40 million bottles (much more than my estimate of 30 million!) whereas Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (VCP) makes about 20 million bottles. Not many people like to talk positively about competitors but Clovis is very complimentary about Drappier when I ask him about Drappier wines. I like Michel Drappier because he is a man of passion for champagne and does not only promote his own champagnes but the region. The producers must respect the appellations. On the other hand I don’t like some others that make huge volumes but sell in the supermarket without caring for the appellation and treating them as mere commodities to make money from. You find many such products in the UK supermarkets.’
The dinner at Spectra is always delicious and the service immaculate. As Michel Koopman, the Dutch General Manager of the Hotel, shares his disappointment because of 18 bottles of another label are stuck up at the airport due to customs, we enjoy the regular Taittinger Cuvee (and later Rose with dessert) and the star wine Comtes de Champagne 2005. I am not sure if he was serious when he said, ‘I prefer Taittinger Brut to Comtes as it is a difficult wine to make. It’s easier to make a high quality wine with lower quantities than the consistently good quality champagne in bigger volumes. If I am stuck at an island, I’d rather have the Brut,’ says Clovis who is very witty. When he sees me taking notes, he says, ‘I must be careful in what I say because you seem to be a serious person!’
Although living in Paris, his heart is in Reims and he is very passionate about champagne even as he fancies the history of Champagne as the history of France. He has been working with the company for 9 years but has had no formal training in enology though ‘I can tell from any champagne about its characteristics. It is wrong for people to think that the technique to make wine is very important. It is the styles and vision that you  have to have to make good champagne and that comes from experience.’ At the same time, he admits that though ‘my father is overall in-charge and my sister and I look after marketing, we have given charge of making the champagne principally to wine makers and experts who we believe are more intelligent in the technical capabilities.
‘Our vision is to make wines light and with precision and sophistication with minimal intervention. We treat them like bonsai in Japan,’ as he says, ‘that’s why I prefer out non-vintage champagnes,’ he says as we have the delicious dessert served with Rose Brut. This always foxes me how one can match the dessert with a relatively dry Brut Rose. I would have preferred Taittinger Nocturne Sec which at 17 gms sugar. it would be a better match than a Rose which despite the pleasing colour was rather dry with 8-10 gms sugar present to match with the dessert. I often see the 5-start hotels going wrong in the pairing ,today was no different, even though some might differ with me.
Clovis Taittinger is the Managing Director of Taittinger, looking after exports. ‘My father is the CEO of the company whereas my sister looks after marketing and communications.’ He is tipped to become the CEO when his father retires in a couple of years but we don’t get to talk about the subject as also about the land they bought in Kent to produce English sparkling wine. Both are at least a couple of years away and since he promises to come back soon, hopefully within the next two years,
I await his next visit.
Subhash Arora
For earlier Articles visit:
Passing By: Nicolas Delion of Taittinger Champagne
Taittinger Champagne returns to the Family |