Telmont Champagne : Making champagne differently

In the last days of summer, as well as recently at the Grande Dégustation de Montréal, I had the opportunity to try Telmont Champagne. I also had the opportunity to chat with the company’s president, Ludovic du Plessis, just a few weeks before the harvest. To put it mildly, my conversational partner has extensive knowledge of the wine and spirit business. He began his journey as a sales trainee with an internship at LVMH in the 1990s, moving on to work at Sopexa and Altadis before rejoining LVMH. His path ultimately led him to become the global head of marketing for the Louis XIII cognac brand. This individual’s impressive résumé spans decades within the realm of high-end products. Join me as we delve into this remarkable figure’s fascinating story, shedding light on both his personal journey and the captivating world of luxury. 

Normand Boulanger :If you’ll allow me, I’d like to start by saying that I was lucky enough to taste the Réserve Brut (the one you find in Canada with the Rosé), and it’s magnificent. The bubbles are fine, it’s delicious. Frankly, bravo!

Ludovic du Plessis :Thank you, Normand, you know that everything we’re going to say to each other today only makes sense if the wine is good. If the wine isn’t good, we’re not having this conversation. And it all starts with the wine. At Telmont, we say that wine is good if the land is beautiful. And that’s why I’m behind Telmont today. I don’t know if you know the genesis behind the Telmont story, but I’ll tell you. 

My interest in champagne stems from the fact that I worked for Dom Pérignon for 10 years, and then the Rémy Cointreau group called me to become president of Louis XIII cognac, so I accepted for a 7-year term.

After those 7 wonderful years, I asked myself what I wanted to do with my life. And as someone who loves champagne, I wanted to start my own business, but one with meaning. So I got on my Brompton bike and set off for Champagne, with the aim of buying a champagne house. In my mind, I had 4 boxes to tick to find the right one. I wanted a house with an incredible history—Telmont was born in 1912 out of the Champagne revolution of 1911. Secondly, I wanted one that was still a family business, my partner, Bertrand Lhôpital, who remains the Cellar Master and Viticultural Manager, is the one who makes the wine and is the 4th generation of the family. Thirdly, that the wines were incredible, it was really good, good tension and beautiful minerality, which has a real body, not heavy, very airy, a long finish on the palate and fine bubbles. And 4th, I should find a house that had started its conversion to organic farming. 

NB :For the last criterion, it can’t have been easy to find!    

LdP :Indeed, with only 5% organic farming in Champagne, it was almost a mission impossible! And at this Telmont winery, Bertrand (Lhôpital, mentioned above) has the same philosophy and had already started farming organically. So we teamed up. I presented the project to the Rémy Cointreau group, my employer, with the aim of making the best Champagne, without compromising on the environment. They say, “We’re in “.

Today, we are four partners: Groupe Rémy Cointreau (main shareholder), myself (shareholder and Chairman/CEO), Bertrand Lhôpital (shareholder and cellar master) and a long-time friend, Leonardo DiCaprio (minority shareholder).

NB :Your latest shareholder is somewhat well known.

LdP :Mr. DiCaprio is not an ambassador, he’s not the face of Telmont, he’s a shareholder. It’s much more powerful for us than a spokesperson. You also have to understand that this is not celebrity champagne. The reason he’s an investor is that he’s a spokesman at the United Nations for the notion of climate change. It was he, Leonardo, who planted the environmental seed in my head 15 years ago. He used to text me: “Ludo, watch this movie, watch this documentary, etc.” and so it got into my head and that’s why, 4 years ago, I said, “Let’s make the best champagne, without compromising on sustainability.” And we made those decisions in 2021, not tomorrow; we did that yesterday.

We have initiated a project called “Au Nom de la Terre” (“In the Name of the Earth”), which focuses on the soil as its primary component. And when we talk about biodiversity in Champagne, we mean planting trees and plant cover, which improves biodiversity. And what we say at Telmont is that you can’t stop there! We have to stop using herbicides, pesticides and fungicides—in other words, stop using synthetic chemistry and go organic. We’re doing this on our estate, which covers 25 hectares, and we’re also doing it with our winegrowing partners, who cover 75 hectares, 70% of which is organic.

We’re lucky, as I say every year, that in Champagne we have a climate reserve. In bad years, we can dip into it. It’s an insurance policy that other regions of France don’t have. That’s why I say, particularly because we have this advantage, we should all go organic.
This way of doing things is good for the planet, for health and for wine. It’s beneficial, it brings energy to the wine, it’s a wine that’s full of life, it’s a happy wine!

NB :I guess that’s not all, is it?

LdP : No, there’s also the House’s carbon footprint. We’ve made some important decisions. We’ve said, in June 2021, we’re stopping gift boxes, we’re stopping limited editions. The best packaging is no packaging at all. Just by removing the packaging, we reduce the House’s carbon footprint by 8%. I’ve been told I’m going to lose sales, and I said, “No, it’s a question of education!” In any case, if you’re a true luxury brand, you have to be irreproachable from an environmental point of view. You’re not going to wait 5 years for your customer to tell you to do more for the environment; it’s up to you to set an example for your customers.

Then, still with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint, 30% of the Maison’s footprint is the weight of the bottle. We’ve done this in four stages. We stopped using the bespoke bottle (900 g) and went for the classic champagne bottle (835 g). Secondly, we asked ourselves if we could make a lighter bottle. You have to be careful because there’s twice the pressure of a tire in a champagne bottle, so you have to be careful with the glass. So we went to see Verallia, the glass bottle manufacturer, and they came up with an 800 g bottle. We tried it, and the good news is that it doesn’t break! We left the patent open to all. Then we eliminated the clear bottles (Rosé and Blanc de blancs) because they can’t be made from recycled glass, whereas the green bottle is 87% recycled glass. Then, when manufacturers make bottles, they have to make them to certain colour specifications; otherwise they are returned, melted down and remade. We took these bottles (193,000) and put our champagne in them, calling the project “193,000 shades of green.” So all Telmont bottles will be a slightly different shade of green. We then stopped shipping by air, which is 47 times more polluting than by road or sea.

We’ve published all this in a guide that can be found on our website. We’re not saying our project is perfect. We’re taking it step by step, with a great deal of humility. We don’t want to be carbon neutral, we want to have zero net emissions. In fact, Telmont is being studied by French universities for its various actions.      

NB :Coming back to the bottle itself, what’s interesting is that they’re all individually numbered.

LdP :In fact, the front label of the product is Telmont’s identity. As a customer, we want you to know how many bottles are produced. It’s different whether you’re making 40 million or 200,000. They are indeed individually numbered. Then, it’s very important for us to show the sugar and the dosage. Every customer who buys a bottle of champagne should ask themselves this question about the sugar in the bottle. Today’s customer is looking for a straightforward champagne that communicates information.  

NB :If I go back to what we were talking about earlier, in the early 1900s, the agriculture that was practised was organic, so this return to the land is a return to the roots, isn’t it
That’s true. It was the two world wars that brought in all these chemical ingredients. Before that, there weren’t any, and things worked just fine. We haven’t reinvented the wheel; these are common sense decisions and good farming sense. At Telmont, we believe that wine is only as good as the land.

LdP : C’est vrai. Ce sont ces deux guerres mondiales qui ont apporté tous ces ingrédients chimiques. Avant, il n’y en avait pas, et ça fonctionnait très bien. On n’a pas réinventé la roue, ce sont des décisions de bon sens, de bon sens paysan. On pense, chez Telmont, que le vin est bon que si la terre est belle.  

NB : When you head up a company like Telmont, the main shareholder, Groupe Rémy Cointreau, has to ask you for figures, for a certain level of profitability, hasn’t it?

LdP :

(Laughs). I’m a shareholder, and so is Leonardo DiCaprio. And we’re aiming for positive growth. We’re increasing production, of course. And all bottles will be numbered. I don’t know whether we’ll go to 500,000, 600,000 or more bottles tomorrow. But what I do know is that we’re going to go at our own pace, while maintaining the same quality and transparency for customers who want to know what’s going on. Our aim is not to make 10 million bottles tomorrow, but to make good champagne, without herbicides, pesticides or synthetic chemicals, while at the same time having a beneficial effect on the wine.       

NB :It really is a magnificent bottle, magnificent champagne, a different bubble, small and with so much energy at the same time.

LdP :Yes, there’s all this texture that’s there, that’s present, that’s very discreet, and this energy, as you say, is produced by the fact that it’s very airy. It’s not heavy, and that can be dangerous because one glass calls for a second, a third and so on.

 

NB :On the other hand, it’s good for sales (Laughs).

LdP :(Laughing): Ah yes, but we’re in the allocation phase, so we’re cultivating several markets, including Japan, especially Kyoto. Kyoto has a significant potential market, but also values transparency, appreciates our label, and is interested in our sustainability-focused information. We’re also in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. And Leonardo is very proud of what we do. He’s not just there to put his name on it, he wants action from us.

And we’re entering Canada this autumn. I’m very happy to be coming to Canada because we’re in a country that’s ahead of the rest of the world on environmental issues. And so, for me, it’s a priority market, and I hope to be able to come there personally very soon to spread the good news. I think the market will be very receptive to Telmont’s message and to this style of wine. 

NB : It’s a champagne that comes from agriculture, but it’s also an excellent champagne. Sometimes, some organic wines leave us a little thirsty, whereas that’s not at all the case with Telmont champagne. 

LdP :In the end, over and over again, if the wine wasn’t good at Telmont, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We have the Friends of Telmont, a kind of collective that is created around Telmont that people want to share. Among them is a sailor named Romain Pilliard, who bought Ellen MacArthur’s trimaran and refurbished it according to the principles of the circular economy with a project called “Use It Again” and is sailing around the world. He called me and said, I want to have sustainable champagne that I can open when I cross the finish line at Cape Horn. I explain that I’m not doing a sponsorship, and he says, I just want 3 half-bottles to celebrate sustainability, that’s all. That’s great, I said yes. There’s also a treehouse resort in Japan called Treeful Tree Hous that, again in the spirit of sustainability, serves our champagne. 

As I mentioned, there’s a Telmont collective around us. There are Michelin Green Star chefs, an association in New York called Chefs 4 Impact, a film festival called Cinema For Change, which features documentaries on the environment, fisherman Mathieu Chapel and all that. We get together every year at Telmont to exchange ideas.

NB :It’s interesting to see this movement come about naturally.

LdP :Yes, totally organically, as our wine is.

NB :Getting back to Mr. DiCaprio, the fact that he’s well known and committed to environmental causes shouldn’t be a hindrance to spreading the word about Telmont champagne.

LdP :If it had been anyone else, we wouldn’t have taken him on because, I repeat, this is not a celebrity champagne. He invests, not because of our friendship, but because the project is strong, and he wants to help us make changes. In Champagne, we’re the enfants terribles, the ones who want to change things. And Leonardo is helping us to get that message across.  

NB :Going back to the beginning, to the opening of the first bottle of Telmont champagne, how did it all happen for you?

LdP :Actually, that’s a good question, Normand. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to buy a Champagne House. And I would only go if it ticked the four boxes I mentioned. I hoped the wines would please me. I went in, tasted, and, like you, had that effect of superb texture, lightness and lovely length on the palate and went “wow”! It was the Réserve Brut. Then I tasted the Rosé, the Blanc de Blancs, the Blanc de Noirs and they were all incredible, so I was convinced. And then, the great pride is to arrive at a restaurant like the l’Oustau de Baumanière of Michelin-starred chef Glen Viel, and see his champagne there. It’s the same when you go to a wine shop.

NB :Speaking of pride, what makes you most proud to be a Telmont shareholder?

LdP :There are two things that make me proud at Telmont Champagne House. There are 16 of us, 8 women and 8 men, and these people are happy because they are carrying out a project that makes sense, that gets things moving. And the second is to try things out and see that they work. We’ve taken risks with gift boxes, the weight of the bottle, etc., and all these actions are being studied in all French universities, and that’s a huge message for the new generation. And let’s not forget that wine is good, and because it comes from the soil, it’s good.

NB : Thank you, Ludovic, for this interview and for your time!

The Telmont Champagne is available in Canada

• In SAQ : Réserve Brut & Réserve Rosé
• In LCBO : Réserve Brut

     

For more details on champagne Telmont and buy it (in some countries), it’s on this link.