Chanson: ‘we tried and failed to make an alcohol-free red Burgundy’
Vincent Avenel, managing director of Domaine Chanson, is going full-steam ahead with plans to modernise the 275-year-old Burgundy producer. Eloise Feilden finds out more.
When Avenel came on board at Domaine Chanson in 2016, the producer was stuck in its old ways. Founded in 1750, Bollinger acquired the Burgundy producer in 1999, working with winemaker Jean-Pierre Confuron to continue making wines with long ageing potential but which could rarely be enjoyed young.
To hear Avenel tell it, up until 2020, the wines at Chanson were “very good”, but “required a lot of patience”.
Covid-19 offered Domaine Chanson a turning point. “Thanks to Covid,” he says, the producer was able to make “tough decisions, but good decisions”.
The Chanson team developed a 10-year strategy to shift more focus towards domaine wines and pivot away from negociant wines, which up until this point accounted for 75% of the business.
However, a “miracle” opportunity presented itself in 2020, and the producer acquired a 45-hectare estate in Côte Chalonnaise, shifting the business model to a 50/50 split of negociant and domaine wines.
“We transformed the organisation in one day,” Avenel states.
Now, five years later, Avenel works closely with cellar manager Lucy Auger and vineyard manager Justine Savoye to run the show.
Avenel says Domaine Chanson “moved from what is very classic in Burgundy – a one man show,” to a winemaking endeavour “with no ego”.
The producer now owns 43 hectares in Côte de Beaune and 45 ha in Côte Chalonnaise. When it comes to domaine wines, Chanson has shifted its style to “produce wine with great ageing potential that is also seductive in the first year”.
Chanson has also been experimenting with dealcoholised wines. “We tried, because we are not stubborn,” he says. Avenel is open-minded about trying new things; “nothing is wrong,” he says.
Indeed, the Chanson MD had an ambitious goal when it came to no and low, motivated to make “the best non-alcoholic red wine made with Pinot Noir from Burgundy”.
But the project is no more, and Avenel admits that “we gave up” with plans for a 0% red Burgundy.
The efforts of his team have not gone to waste, however. Avenel believes that testing dealcoholisation techniques will be vital in the future when rising temperatures will take a toll on grape ripeness and therefore alcohol levels. “There is a challenge with the alcohol level in the wines,” he says, explaining that Chanson was experimenting with these techniques “not just for the sake of doing zero alcohol wines”.
He wanted to “test techniques that would help us in the future to reduce the alcohol level if it goes too high because of global warming”.
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World outlook
Global warming is proving to be an ever-growing issue for Burgundy producers in more ways than one.
Reduced yields in recent years as a result of higher temperatures mean Burgundy has become “a little bit expensive”, Avenel laughs.
He describes 2021 as the vintage “which created this big mess”.
“When ’21 arrived the worldwide demand for Burgundy was super high, and unfortunately the production was super low, and that’s when everything happened with the price increases, which went through the roof.”
However, Avenel is confident that “the mood is changing”, and that prices are “coming back to reality”.
He cites figures from the end of April showing that sales volumes increased by 6% and value by 20% for Burgundy, despite the impact that economic uncertainty, US tariffs and global conflicts are having on the greater fine wine market.
“We are not yet affected by the crisis,” he says, “but we live on the same planet, so we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months.”
Domestic sales in France, which just a few years ago made up 50% of the business, have dropped to a 30% share thanks to the recent spike in Burgundy prices.
“With the price increase, it has become more difficult or less acceptable for French buyers or consumers to buy some wines from Burgundy when other markets are perhaps less sensitive to this price increase,” he says.
But Avenel sees this as a positive. “It’s a sign of success.”
In just the last year, Japan has singled itself out as a growth market. The producer signed a contract with Suntory’s fine wine import arm last year; a move which has seen sales in the market skyrocket. Japan, which has historically remained at number four in the producer’s list of sales destinations, is now Domaine Chanson’s top market.
But Chanson is not seeing the same level of growth everywhere. Avenel describes the US tariff situation as a “nightmare”, asking: “how can you build something when you have this uncertainty all the time?”
But producers are in a bind. “If we don’t sell to the US, it will be painful because it represents 15-20% of our business.”
However, Avenel believes US importers and consumers will be the ones to pay the ultimate price. “There are other markets and other countries we can sell to,” he says. “But Americans who are involved in importing wines, the logistics, the restaurants, the retailers, they are going to lose their jobs. The first who are punished are the workers in the States who are in this beautiful industry, and the consumers.”
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