The worldwide fame enjoyed by the wines of Champagne is the result of tireless work achieved with courage and passion by characters who now belong to the History of Champagne: Heidsieck, Clicquot, Pommery, Bollinger etc... Luckily for us, they had successors.

Pierre Lanson himself does not worship his name, but he wanted the name of his Brand to be recognised throughout the world. Several millions of bottles per year! Their elaboration alone is not enough, they also need to be sold intelligently! The negociant business has perhaps become an atavism of Champagne since the great fairs of Champagne of former times? Our geographic situation at the crossroads of Europe is an incentive to leave our boundaries ! In direct contact with the clients :       "My father insisted that we learnt to follow each stage in the elaboration of our wine: I myself even went as far as the client's table... I even tried out the profession of barman at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London".
		Pierre Lanson: a continual task to link Champagne to his clients

For about thirty years, this man lived far from home for one day in three in order to "present his House in its best light". He liked both commerce and contact. As for "public relations" (which everybody now revels in) "let us use them only when they have a direct effect on sales! ".
      Pierre LANSON was amongst those who managed to break into new markets for the wines of Champagne. "This began during the war in Algeria, when he managed to deliver LANSON in military lorries on the condition that he paid for the petrol... and the GMC lorry of the period consumed an enormous amount!" His memory lights up and reveals further details. His most wonderful memory? "One thousand cases sold in a one-off deal to a the "Champs-Elysées" night-club in ORAN in 1956!" His pride? The Caribbean market, in particular the DOM-TOM (French overseas departments). In 1958 in Guadeloupe, Lanson sold two hundred cases, and the whole of Champagne sold barely one thousand. "Several years later we sent up to 180,000 !"
      However, Pierre Lanson has other reasons to be happy. "In twelve years of hard work in Central Africa, we moved from twenty thousand bottles per year to two hundred and eighty thousand at the beginning of the 1970's!" All of this represents a great deal of energy, time and effort, for results, which are sometimes disappointing but never useless: the establishment and the fame of a Brand relies on continual and in-depth work achieved over the long term.

Fortune and misfortune

      No regrets! With time, misfortune becomes fortune. And the words of Pierre Lanson will, therefore, sparkle. We accompany him everywhere, lingering and amusing, briefcase and flute-glass in his hands, acting as a friendly envoy for the prosperity of Champagne.
We land with him, beneath the noise of machine guns at Lomé (Togo), where the aeroplane collects a load of escaping ministers. You can imagine him waking up with a start in his hotel bedroom and throwing his shoe to frighten a rat. We follow in his steps to the mining town of Ciudad Bolivar (Venezuela), on the banks of the 0rinoco, where numerous clients were former convicts who had escaped from Cayenne. The busts of Napoléon, which adorn the Negociant Houses, remind us of the Corsican origins of these distant French cousins.
      We smile at the memory of a hotel reception in flames, where all of the occupants gathered together in pyjamas (some even in flowery ones), expressing their anxiety in a variety of languages.
      "What a marvellous profession it is to be a Champagne negociant! With this "incredible" prosperity, have we not lost sight of the constraints of international commerce?" For Pierre Lanson, the difficult situations, which Champagne sometimes encounters are a pressing invitation to resume the world tours more actively than ever before. Both present and future customers demand that the glory of this King of Wines should be sung regularly by the authentic people in all places where Champagne is enjoyed.

		Bernard de La Giraudière is a gentleman: in another century, he would have joyfully fought with a sword or crossed the seas. However, in our century, he has chosen to devote his vitality to exporting the most beautiful jewel in French viticulture. A passionate choice       After several years at the CIVC (Inter-professional Committee for the wines of Champagne) Bernard de Nonancourt co-opted him to participate in the successful adventure of Laurent-Perrier. "After several years at the CIVC (Inter-professional Committee for the wines of Champagne) Bernard de Nonancourt co-opted him to participate in the successful adventure of Laurent-Perrier. "There is champagne and Champagne. I chose to serve the legend rather than take the easy option, and I did it as much for my own amusement as for the "challenge".
HRH the Princess Michael of Kent receives a charming representative from the House of Laurent-Perrier

The distinction of the recruiter was apt: speaking English as he lives and breathes, our man was perfectly equipped to establish Laurent-Perrier well over and beyond the French speaking regions. "For twenty-five or twenty-six years, I did not take much time to look behind me! Laurent-Perrier which produced a million bottles in 1966, now elaborates several million per year, of which over half are exported..."

Marvellous memories

      Some anecdotes? Indeed, they are the bread of life of this exporter. The journey is a never-ending chain of small misfortunes, which are not always funny !
      Bernard de La Giraudière recalls several memories: in an aeroplane at Venezuela, he made an emergency landing at Maracaïbo: the pilot had forgotten to fill up with petrol before taking off...
      Arriving much later in his room in a top quality hotel in Fort-de-France, he had to negotiate for his bed with another traveller that the hotel manager had, in his absence, mistakenly installed in his place...
      In Mexico, an American burst into his hotel bedroom seeking refuge: gunshots from a nearby riot made his own room inhospitable...
      In Paraguay, he discovered a pleasant customer with a Castillian Christian name and a German surname who had discretely gone into exile from Germany in 1945... And so on...

A noble ideal

      Bernard de La Giraudière interrupts this agreeable chain of memories and becomes serious. "Above and beyond everything, which is futile, our aim as globe-trotters of champagne, is to fit into different cultures and traditions: we must understand others". His extensive experience in this has taught him that often, "the image of Champagne precedes the taste of Champagne". From which the importance of the prosperity of Champagne to continue to develop towards the excellent quality of a pale golden wine, and to maintain its aura. "This is the meaning of our role at the heart of the Great Brands of Champagne, which are the driving force of the entire profession". For Bernard de La Giraudière, if the only logic was the trading account, this would be tyrannical and, in the end, impoverishing. "Laurent-Perrier would never have accomplished all that it did for Champagne, if we had only thought in financial terms". There is no reason to add (because it is implicit) that without pleasure, it would not have achieved all of this! Anachronistic, Bernard de La Giraudière? Surely not. Rather an idealist like all those who are passionate about what they do. "The most beautiful gift that we can offer to the Champagne community is to maintain and spread its values. We are both the guarantees and the standard bearers !"

Rémi Krug is part of the fifth generation of a family, whose name evokes the prestige of Champagne. A globe-trotter of the House, he is attached to the continuity of a family (as much as his brother Henri), which is devoted to elaborate wine for the "happy few". That means a wine, which does not depend on an infatuation with transient fashion, but which, like the Appellation, seeks to be eternal. This wine is essentially exported and contributes, therefore, to the prestige of the A.O.C.
		Presentation of Krug Grande Cuvée in the country of the rising sun

Journeys with an educational aim

      ""The voyage is a tradition in Champagne". It is also a necessity for an exceptional luxury product, which needs Ambassadors like any reigning sovereign. The ancestor, Johann-Joseph Krug, a native of Mayence created the House in 1843 and was both a great producer and an extensive traveller. Today, we can go further and faster, but we must always accompany the bottle to give life and intensity to the long chain going from the vines to the pleasure of the senses.
      "I do not sell directly in that I do not take orders. My mission is above all educational: inform about the details of the origin of the taste and the realities, which prepare for the magical moment of tasting". Rémi Krug enumerates the various categories of his colleagues like an actor evoking his different audiences. First of all, you must motivate "the sales force" and provide them with the information necessary to improve their efficiency, motivation and powers of persuasion. Afterwards, "the professionals", that is to say, the chefs, wine-waiters, wine shop owners, wholesalers, all of these decision makers must be convinced. The journalists must be seduced while fully respecting their freedom of expression. Finally, "the carefully chosen consumers, lovers of beautiful things, wine-lovers". Rémi Krug does not hide the joy he obtains from exchanges with these friends. "I take great pleasure in all of that". As if to excuse himself, he adds: "It is true that I am the ambassador of a wine, which only provokes smiles. I have the good side of things!"

With a detailed preparation

      The detailed preparation of his journeys takes up almost half of his business time. The routes, the meetings, the meals and even the menus are planned in advance. "I make an effort to use my time wisely. The objective aims to reply to many requests for information rather than to directly encourage sales". Rémi Krug insists on the important investment in time necessary for promoting a brand of Champagne, which he places "at the top of the small group of prestige cuvées". A bottle of "Krug Grande Cuvée" spends six years in the cellar before being finally ready for drinking, and a vintage bottle waits even longer. This slow maturing process makes up part of the nobility of Krug Champagne and finally results in its purchase and its consumption.

Maintaining the "club" spirit throughout the entire world

      "We have hundreds of thousands of clients around the world, perhaps even one hundred and fifty thousand..." And, Rémi Krug, in order to explain this community that he animates, "a refined elite", describes it as varied but united by the same taste. The pleasure of wine is always the same and is expressed by the same words: "This pleasure can be compared with art, which reunites different people over and above reason and rationality".
      The strength of this bond enables you to overlook the inconvenience of the price. Nevertheless, sometimes someone chooses to mention this side of things. Rémi Krug then points out with a courteous assurance that "the price is in fact very quickly forgotten when you discover the emotion of enjoying a great wine !"
      You will have now understood that the House of Krug does not conduct a flashy form of advertising, which is (whatever the publicity firms may say) an impersonal form of communication. The development of its image is undertaken by personal contacts. Geographically, his journeys take Rémi Krug to all of the countries of the European Community, The United States, Australia and South-East Asia. Finally, we are envious of his task as animator of this network of happy relationships, this global village of refinement and good taste, born from the Champagne vineyards.
      Our globe-trotters of modern times do all that they can to show themselves worthy of their famous predecessors. In this way, they contribute to maintain and develop the fame of their wines and of the Champagne appellation throughout the whole world.

Interviews conducted in November 1992.