This in the face of immense competition such as Baron Albert Frère (Cheval Blanc), United Breweries (India), a branch of the Agnelli family, and REIG (Spanish). The Hotel Group, Société Louvre, the main reason for the Starwood purchase in the first place, remains with Starwood. During our talk, he was patently in a sort of seventh heaven – a man who has reached Nirvana!

I felt an immense joy and gladness for him. It is a colossal achievement and the management of the great House of Taittinger is assured by the family for the foreseeable future. He could not give enough praise to the Crédit Agricole. “They were friends and partners rather than bankers and the whole deal was sealed on a handshake.

 

They were true Champenois. I can never thank them enough. The family spirit will be totally and completely preserved and honoured”. At the same time he praised the help and support given to him by the Champagne trade in general. Growers, Champagne Houses (all except one), the Syndicat des Vignerons – all showed solidarity and the Champagne Houses forbore to bid against him.

In 1878, Pierre-Alexandre (Pierre-Emmanuel’s great uncle) married Caroline Testut, from Mirepoix. They had three children : Marthe, Madeleine and finally Pierre (1887-1965).
Pierre turned out to be a simply incredible personality. He led a life so full that it would have satisfied ten persons, was hugely successful in all that he did and it was he who created and prospered the original House of Taittinger and put it on the road to being the great name that it is today.

In 1911, Pierre, as a young man of 24, was uncertain what to do with his life when his brother in law, Marthe’s husband Louis Burnouf, offered him a partnership in the Champagne distribution company that he had just set up in Paris. Pierre went to work for an Epernay based company, l’Union Champenoise (this company was linked to Bouvet-Ladoubay, in Saumur, which is why in later years, 1973, Claude Taittinger bought it when the occasion arose.

Incidentally Starwood have sold this company now to United Breweries. United Breweries were also interested in buying Taittinger CCVC from Starwood, but backed down when the Champagne Houses as a whole expressed concern and reservations. La Belle France, just as with Arcelor, seems not to be sympathetic to Indian take-overs!This was the Belle Epoque and selling Champagne was no effort or hardship.

The company prospered mightily, in spite of Phylloxera, riots by the growers and fraud. The riots, horrific though they were, resulted in the “honesty law” and the setting of the official Champagne boundaries. Pierre was quite a man-about-town in Paris, a regular of the famous Maxim’s and a frequenter of the “demi-mondaines”. He was also getting drawn into politics, but had to leave Paris to fight in the 1914-18 war. He had met Gabrielle Rouyet-Guillet (1893-1924), daughter of the famous Cognac house, and in spite of the war, he found time to marry her, on 28th October 1917, at the magnificent Château Rochemont of his bride’s father.

They had five children : Guy (1918-1978), Michel (1920-1940), François (1921-1960), Jean in 1923 and Marie-Clothilde in 1924. Sadly, a few days after this last birth, Gabrielle died of an embolism. Pierre-Alexandre had died, in 1921.
Having returned from the war, Pierre had gone back to politics and Champagne. Then, in 1925, he remarried, this time to Anne-Marie Mailly (1887-1987). There were three children : Pierre-Christian in 1926, Claude in 1927 and Colette in 1928. Pierre and his family of eight settled in Paris. He was rich and prosperous.

Now came the awful thirties and the great crash. Pierre took on Paul Leveque, his aunt’s husband, to manage his company. He became an absolutely key man in the company for many years and Pierre trusted him absolutely. Pierre also bought the companies of Couvert and Forest et Fourneaux, the latter a very fine, old name in the Champagne world. With it came the fabulous old residence of the Counts of Champagne (more later). Under Paul’s management and Pierre’ ownership the company, now called Taittinger-Mailly, weathered many a crisis and continued to expand. Pierre also bought the magnificent Château La Marquetterie, in 1932, which became the family home.

The Second World War arrived and with it the German occupation. This period is written about in more detail in BORDEAUX-NEW YORK, Issue Number 5, 2004, but a few items need to be mentioned here. Paul was now 60 and called upon François Taittinger to help him weather these difficult times. Gradually François took over the running of the company.

 

He had a quick temper, which cost him a few days in prison when he said to Otto Klaebisch, the German sonderführer, “it doesn’t matter, my Champagne is not going to be drunk by anybody who knows anything about it” (he was referring to the German soldiers). His brother managed to obtain his release, but it was a bad time for all in Champagne!
When the war was finally over, Claude Taittinger joined the business, in 1947 (then aged 20). Taittinger was an important company, with solid foundations, historic buildings, 123 hectares of vineyards and fine stocks in spite of the war.

Claude became very attached to the American market, spent a great deal of time there and before long the company of Kobrand became their agents and importers. François developed the company greatly and diversified.

 

He took Taittinger into hotels, luxury ones. The company built the vineyard ownership up to 193 hectares. Tragically, in the middle of his multitudinous projects, François was killed in a road accident, in 1960. He was truly the architect of the modern Taittinger!

Now Claude took over the daily running of the company. His father, Pierre, having led his amazing life in politics, and having created Taittinger, passed away, in 1965. Claude became the President Director General and presided over the destiny of the company for the next 40 years. He continued to make it flourish and prosper, aided by other members of the family, including Pierre-Emmanuel.

Then sadly, as happens too often in France, because of Napoleon’s abolition of primogeniture, there were too many members of the family who wished to see some return on their holdings. Fiscal reasons finally decided the Taittinger family to sell the entire business empire, in 2005.
It was bought by Starwood Capital Group, the American giant. Starwood were chiefly interested in the hotels and Taittinger owned the great Crillon in Paris, among others. Starwood put Taittinger Champagne back on the market.

 

This brings us to the wonderful news that I announced at the beginning of this article. The Crédit Agricole of Champagne Ardenne, together with Pierre-Emmanuel and some members of his family, set about trying to buy it against fierce competition – REIG, United Breweries, Baron Albert Frère, and others.

Success was achieved at the beginning of July 2006. It is a monumental achievement. As I write this, it is not yet signed, and at our meeting the company was still under American administration. Pierre-Emmanuel, very correctly and carefully, sat in a chair at the side of the main one behind the Presidential desk.

 He said “I will leave my uncle’s chair vacant until all is signed and I am officially the Executive managing Director. At present I am the Directeur Général Délégué. My uncle Claude retired on 1st July, just two weeks ago.

The seat is still hot!” When asked by me “how did you win against such competition ” he answered me with the utmost sincerity “I won by prayer”. As a deeply religious man he meant every word of it. He was in every way the architect of the new capital, aided by the Crédit Agricole. Claude’s daughter, Virginie, continues to look after Public Relations and some other members of the Taittinger family are still involved.

WHO’S WHO
As the company is undergoing change of ownership at the present time, there are bound to be multiple changes in the near future. Pierre-Emmanuel said therefore that he would rather not give lists of names. He can say that ownership will be, for some months while the new capital is organised, the Crédit Agricole, himself, as Executive managing Director, and certain other members of his family. These include Virginie, Claude’ daughter, with whom he gets along extremely well.

He very much hopes that his two oenologists will remain. These are Loïc Dupont and Nicolas Bailly. Pierre-Emmanuel’s father was mainly on the hotel side and looked after the Crillon. He was also Minister of Justice and Minister of State under Pompidou. He is alive and well and a great encouragement to Pierre-Emmanuel in all that he is doing.
Pierre-Emmanuel, born in 1953, took a Masters Degree in Business Administration before joining the company. He is married to Claire, née Flotard, and they have three children : Clovis, Vitalie and Clémence.

VINEYARDS
Today the company owns 288.84 Hectares of vines in 34 different vineyards. This is made up of 36.6% Chardonnay (105.78 hectares), 47.2 Pinot Noir (136.32 hectares) and 16.2% Pinot Meunier (46.74 hectares). These supply 40-50% of their requirements.
Taittinger are the biggest single owner in the Côte des Blancs. The vast majority of their vineyards are Grands Crus or Premiers Crus. In spite of the fact that they have more Pinot Noir, the accent of Taittinger wines is still on Chardonnay.

The famous Comtes de Champagne was one of the first Blanc de Blancs when it was first produced in 1952.Pierre-Emmanuel states firmly, “under the new ownership the wine will not change, nor the winemaking, nor our suppliers.

The oenologists I hope will stay and the wine become ever finer”. The company has literally hundreds of contracts with growers all over Champagne, but all lots from each and every grower remain totally identifiable.

CELLARS
They own absolutely fabulous properties, thanks to the foresightedness of previous Taittingers. The cellars are the ancient, third century, Gallo-Roman chalk cellars, over which used to be the historical, 13th century Sainte Nicaise Monastery. This was purchased by François Taittinger, in 1942.

It had belonged, like many another buildings all over France, to the Comtes de Champagne, but had been totally destroyed. On this site Taittinger then built their splendid offices. Here once lived Thibaut IV (known as the Singer), the last and the most famous of the Comtes de Champagne.

It is a splendiferous edifice. Happily this comes back from Starwood.Taittinger also owns the ancient Residence of the Comtes de Champagne (in addition to the Saint Nicaise Monastery), which was bought, in 1932.

Another magnificent 13th century building, it is where the Comtes received their guests before the coronation of the King in Reims Cathedral.Pierre-Emmanuel himself lives in a simpler residence, in Reims.

PHILOSOPHY
“There will be as little change as possible, and what there will be must be for the better. We must maintain total mastery over our vines, our vinification and our Champagne. We will continue to lean very powerfully towards Chardonnay. A great deal more work will be done on the new wines which we have introduced recently and also on our world-renowned Comtes de Champagne”.

Taittinger found that the agrafe just multiplied risks unnecessarily.The bottled wine goes down to the basse cave, which is 25-30 metres deep here, to age sur lattes (see Gosset) for as long as possible. Then to the upper levels of the cellars for riddling, which is by gyro palettes (see Gosset) apart from the Comtes de Champagne, which is still 100% riddled by hand on the pupitres.

 

When the wine is riddled and ready, it is taken to the upper cellar for dégorgement.It is disgorged, using the freezing solution to freeze the sediment in the neck of the bottles. The addition of the liqueur d’expedition and the recorking are completely classical. The wine is then given at least six months back in the cellars to rest and marry.

The United States OF AMERICA
The vineyard of Domaine Carneros has been included in the Crédit Agricole/Taittinger buy-back. Pierre-Emmanuel will be the C.E.O. Eileen Crane, who has been here since the very beginning of the venture, will be the Executive managing Director. Pierre-Emmanuel has immense respect for her. This was a venture that Taittinger went into, together with Kobrand Corporation, in 1987. It comprises 120 hectares and is planted with Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay.

They own 83.4 % of the equity. As we have seen Taittinger has strong ties with both the USA and Kobrand, who have been their agents and distributors for no less than sixty years. Pierre-Emmanuel is very proud indeed of Carneros and immensely happy to have it back.
Additionally, and nothing do with the USA (but I don’t know where else to put it!), Pierre-Emmanuel is also Chairman of the Bordeaux Négociants, Samazeuilh, which Taittinger have owned, since 1991.

COLLECTION
Taittinger are the creators of the famous “Collection” bottles. Each one uses a different and famous artist rather as does Mouton Rothschild. The first one was produced in 1983, with the artist Victor Vasarely.
The next one to come, in Autumn 2006, will be by the artist Rochenberg and will be brought out in 15,000-30,000 numbered bottles. “We are not giants, we are artists, artisans and creators” says Pierre-Emmanuel.The Comtes de Champagne represents Eternal Youth.

PROJECTS
1. To maintain and continue to improve the quality.

2. To redesign the reception lobby into something elegant, striking and exciting. Pierre-Emmanuel says that when his father restored and redesigned the Crillon he started with the lobby.

3. To increase the “flamboyant character” of the Comtes de Champagne. “Taittinger is too restrained and timid with its treasures”.

4. To develop the vinotheque of old undisgorged wines, which Pierre-Emmanuel persuaded Claude Taittinger to set-up twenty five years ago.

RANGE OF WINES
- TAITTINGER BRUT, Réserve
- TAITTINGER BRUT, Prestige Rosé
- TAITTINGER PRELUDE, Grands Crus
- TAITTINGER Comtes De Champagne, Blanc De Blancs
- TAITTINGER Comtes De Champagne, Rosé, Vintage
- TAITTINGER Brut Millésime
- LES FOLIES DE LA MARQUETTERIE
- TAITTINGER Nocturne
- TAITTINGER Collection