Vincent Avenel on how Domaine Chanson is thinking outside the box
It’s a year since Bollinger-owned Domaine Chanson acquired a 45-hectare estate in Côte Chalonnaise, allowing this 275 year-old Burgundy négociant to future-proof its business. Geoffrey Dean visited the estate and talks in-depth with managing director Vincent Avenel about how key this acquisition has been in terms of his plans to balance the business model, replant rootstock, receive organic certification and completely rethinking Chanson’s business strategy. Avenel is justified in his belief, writes Geoffrey Dean, as they have the fruit, they have a team that is as harmonious as their wines and they have a dynamic, experienced managing director who thinks outside the box.
13th August 2024 by Geoffrey Dean
“Incroyable….utopie,” beamed Vincent Avenel. The charismatic managing director of Domaine Chanson Père et Fils might have been revelling in the runaway success of the Olympics, when thousands of hitherto absent Parisians returned early to the city mid-Games, fearful of missing the biggest party there since France won the World Cup at the Stade de France in 1998.
But Avenel was in fact looking back on a major transformation in the fortunes of one of the most venerable Burgundy négociant houses, whose founding predates the French Revolution. “Thinking of buying 40 hectares in Burgundy is like a dream - utopia,” he reflected. “We told our shareholders it would take 15 years to build this up, but we had the opportunity in one go. Incredible.”
Thinking outside the box: Vincent Avenel, Domaine Chanson, July 2024
Some background is useful here. Notwithstanding the prestige of its imminent 275th anniversary - in 2025 - Chanson Père et Fils was worried about the future. A strategic rethink, ordered during Covid by Etienne Bizot, president of owners, Bollinger, led consultants to conclude that its négociant business was at risk.
“The competition of small growers has become very strong as they don’t really need to sell their fruit,” Avenel explained. “They can vinify, bottle and sell themselves. And demand is so strong that customers are going direct to them. The business model of négociants was we buy fruit or must from growers, and then we vinify, age and sell. But now the raw material is missing because the small growers keep it for themselves. So business is dangerous, and we thought it best to have a larger estate where we know what we are going to get off Mother Nature.”
The issue, though, was how to increase holdings of 43 hectares in a region where sales are either rare and/or expensive. In the summer of 2022, however, word reached Domaine Chanson that the owners of a 45-hectare estate in Côte Chalonnaise named Château D’Etroyes were open to selling. Negotiations began in secret in July of that year, with other rival négociants kept in the dark, and carried on for another eight months before a deal was signed in March 2023.
“A group of eight gentlemen who had been very successful in finance and banking in France, India and Singapore had bought the estate in 2018,” Avenel revealed. “They were seduced by the idea of being owners of land in Burgundy but were very unlucky with the weather and small vintages apart from 2019. The estate needed some investment, and they saw it was going to cost them too much and it was better to sell. But when I visited the wines were at a good level.”
Chanson's cellars at Beaune - the estate's founding predates the French Revolution
Avenel would not reveal the purchase price, only that Chanson Père et Fils was happy with it. “It is always over-priced in Burgundy but in Côte Chalonnaise it remains at a more reasonable level,” he declared. “Prior to this acquisition, our model was 25% of the business based on domaine wines and 75% on negociant wines. Now, with this acquisition, we should be at 50:50. We should now be in a model to help us go through any kind of situation.”
The plan is to renew the vineyards at Château D’Etroyes, mainly in Rully and Mercurey, over the next 15 years.“That will have a cost but we know that, and are ok with that,” Avenel continued. “Long-term is the right way, and we are going to change a few things. The main efforts we have to make are in the vineyards; so we are reinforcing the team looking after them from seven people to 15, and have cut the administrative staff. To reduce the average vine age from 50 years to a more desirable one of 35, they will replant two hectares per annum there for the first 5 years, and then one hectare each year.”
All vinification is being carried out in Beaune, where it is easier to control quality. “The winery in Mercurey was a bit dated, and we have better facilities,” Avenel explained. “It’s too complicated to have two different wineries. For the whites, we press in Mercurey and send the must to Beaune for fermentation.”
There, the vinification facility, which was updated in 2010, is on the edge of town towards Savigny, with the company headquarters and maturation cellars located in town at Bastion de l’Oratoire, a late medieval stone tower that was one of Beaune’s principal fortifications.
Organics and the 2024 season
Biodiversity drive: bee hives at Clos des Mouches
Farming organically is now one of Chanson Père et Fils’ most closely embraced tenets. It will receive organic certification for the entire Beaune harvest this year, and has just begun the process of organic certification at Château D’Etroyes.
“There’s no price premium in Burgundy for organic wines, but some people won’t consider buying if they are not,” Avenel said. “We haven’t done it because it’s a trend, or for marketing, but to take care of the vines with more respect for the environment. It’s better for our employees too but it doesn't make life easy. You have to spray the organic products more often.”
Overseeing a major replanting programme: Justine Savoye, vineyard manager
This vintage has proved particularly testing, with both types of mildew - downy and powdery - a major problem. Persistent rain in the first half this growing season has encouraged the deadly duo. According to Chanson’s vineyard manager, Justine Savoye, as much as 100mm of rain fell in Beaune in June (ten times the normal amount) and 200mm in the Côte de Nuits.
“Many people have lost their entire crop, depending on the plot and the strategy of the domaine,” she said, as we walked through her vines. “This year in Clos des Mouches we sprayed 10 copper and sulphur treatments by early July, more than other years.”Domaine
Chanson’s embrace of experimental viticultural practices include the trial use of a new biofungicide treatment named 'Taegro' that is permitted in organic systems to counter both downy and powdery mildew. Half a dozen new rootstocks are also being trialled by Chanson with a view to replacing 161/49C, which is not resistant to drought. Many vines planted on it since the 1990s are suffering badly.
In addition, a biodiversity drive by Chanson has seen the repair and maintenance of its three kilometres of drystone walls, important habitat for multiple species of insects, snails, slugs, small birds and small mammals. And fittingly, given that the Clos des Mouches vineyard was named after bees (‘mouche à miel’ being the French for honey-bee), bee hives at the top of Chanson’s parcel have been re-established. Meanwhile, several Chanson rows of around 500 vines on a steep incline in the Premier Cru Les Bressandes vineyard are being grubbed up to be replanted with fruit trees.
What though of the wines’ direction?
Lucy Auger, cellar master, presenting the latest vintages
Avenel is clear about making wine as authentic and as pure as possible.
“We are a young team,” he said. “Lucy [Auger], the cellar master, started in 2020, Justine in 2019, and I in 2017. It was time to shake off the dust and ask what are the fundamentals and where we can be good. We’re not wanting to replace Bouchard with four million bottles or Jadot with 12 million. It’s not our goal at all - we are between 600,000 and one million bottles per year depending on the vintage. If we can do more, we will do but the first goal is to produce the best wine in that category. We might be the second or third best, but if we are in the top three we are super happy. And we don’t want to invent a style. We want to produce wine that is authentic and pure as can be.”
A key technical change was made when Auger took over with the abandonment of 100% Pinot Noir whole-bunch fermentation, an unusual practice among Burgundy’s larger-scale producers. This has been reduced to between 25-50%.
“We don’t do things with a systematic approach - we try to adapt to each vintage, each plot,” Avenel continued. “We might be wrong sometimes but we learn and hopefully we improve. It’s something I’ve learnt working for different companies - there is not one magic recipe. I want to emphasise that it’s not a one-man decision at Chanson. Lucy, Justine and I taste wines together and other wines from the competition - blind - and ask ‘are we far from the best, what are the best?’ and try to be inspired by that. We try to build a shared view of where we should go.”
Above all, Avenel knows that shedding the sometimes negatively in-built view of négociants will require patience and time. “When you take decisions you know it’s going to take five, six perhaps ten years,” he sighed. “In terms of image, it takes a lot of time. People have very strong preconceptions. When you start with a négociant image, you really start with a handicap because people tend to think negociants are big and have average wines and are not consistent, which is totally wrong but that’s the preconception because it was based on something that happened 30 or 40 years ago. But nowadays the borders are not very clear because you have growers that become négociants, and négociants that become landowners.
“Our goal is to be among the best in the category and appellation where we are. That’s going to happen when the markets and opinion leaders say it’s happened. We want to show what we’ve been doing in the last six or seven years. We want to renew or change the mindset of people so it’s not a preconception but something based on fact and the things that are really happening. And hopefully, this will grow slowly but surely, and people will think Chanson is not at all what they thought initially. When I joined Faiveley in 2007, their image was terrible, with an undrinkable style of wines, but now if you read the magazines and journalists, Faiveley is quite high now, and it has been a huge change.”
Avenel modestly credits Bernard Hervet not himself for masterminding the turnaround at Faiveley, who doubled their turnover of €nine million between 2007 and 2016. Avenel thinks Chanson’s medium size is a big plus in its quest for greater recognition.
“We’re not small, not big - we have the best of both worlds,” he concluded. “Our focus is not on volume, it’s on quality, and we have a strength compared to smaller growers in that we have a team of specialists. We are right in between which gives us a great advantage.” He is justified in his belief - they have the fruit, they have a team that is harmonious as their wines and they have a dynamic, experienced managing director who thinks outside the box.
Four Chanson wines that caught the eye
Domaine Chanson Corton-Vergennes Grand Cru, 2022
From a 0.65 hectare plot adjacent to Corton-Charlemagne, this was the pick of the whites tasted. Smoky, spicy nose with aromas of white flowers; citrus lime, white peach, apple and earthy wet stone notes on the palate; powerfully structured, yet charming with elegant backbone and taut acidity. Tightly focused and very mineral, complex, long finish.
Domaine Chanson Beaune Premier Cru Clos des Mouches, 2022
From a parcel on a vineyard renowned for producing some of Beaune’s finest white wines. Aromas of pear, vanilla, clove and nutmeg; tight citrus freshness at its core with peach and exotic mango notes; beautiful, tension-filled intensity with linear precision and saline-infused, persistent finish, enhanced by subtle minerality. Grand Cru quality in all but name.
Domaine Chanson Beaune Premier Cru Les Grèves, 2022
From a steep 2-hectare plot with gravelly soils. Strawberry on the nose with herbal, smoky aromas. Bold, dark berry fruit, notably black cherry, on the palate with hints of game. Sensuous, very well-handled tannins provide shape. Plenty of freshness to partner terrific complexity and concentration. Impressive, mineral-inflected length. 20% new oak.
Domaine Chanson Beaune Premier Cru Clos des Fèves, 2022
From a 3.8 ha monopole that has been registered since 1307. Fabulous nose with lifted and perfumed aromas with hints of roses, strawberries and spice. Gorgeous red fruit, with classy black cherry also evident. Olive, chocolate, tobacco and earthy notes add complexity. Structure from 20% new oak. Alluringly textured mouthfeel with super-fine, silky tannins and magnificent concentration and length. If there was a reclassification, this would be a shoe-in Grand Cru. The makings of a great Burgundy.
The wines of Domaine Chanson are imported and sold in the UK by Mentzendorff which is a commercial partner of The Buyer.