Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, Kristen Ellis. How are you? I'm good. How are you, Jeff Carlin? I'm very well. Yeah, I'm happy. You look well. Oh, hey, thanks. You look pink. Pink. Pink and happy. That's me. Like Rosé Champagne. Excellent. Nice segue. I know. I try. But this is a special week for us. Well, we're talking about Fizz again, so I'm a happy girl. Of course. I love it. And not just any Fizz. One of the benchmarks in the Fizz. Exactly. Well, I would say it's probably, it's not the most distributed around the world. It's probably number two after Moet. Sure. So Moet, Chandon, I think they're number one. And then Veuve is number two. But I want to say, I'm going to go out on another short limb and say that the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is the most recognized champagne in the world. Absolutely. I buy it because, I mean, everybody I know, you know, that's the one that that quintessential, that special label of Veuve is just... Well, safety numbers. People aren't stupid. If you're buying Yellow Label over and over again, it's because you like it. And you know that it's a trusty brand and it's good quality. And so you can buy something that you know that even though it's highly recognized and one of the most sought after kind of commodity quote unquote champagnes, you know that you're still going to be satisfied with it. And so I was very lucky to sit down with Delphine Laborde. She is one of 10 winemakers of Veuve Clicquot and she is fantastic. I really enjoyed her. She came into the market and she did a continuing education event with me. And we had her up in our Highland Park location where we have a test kitchen. What we did is we busted out a few different versions of Veuve Clicquot and we kind of threw a bit of a celebration, a 200th birthday party for the Rosé. So that the Rosé expression of Veuve Clicquot is 200 years old this year. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. So I asked her what it felt like to be part of such a history. I mean, like the gravitas of 200 years and I'm taking part of it and I'm making it. Now my hand is in that no matter what, even if I mess it up. You know. Going down in history. Exactly. Yeah, but you're part of it. One of the most iconic brands and then kind of an offshoot of one of the most iconic brands, the Rosé at the time 200 years ago was something very, very new and they do it very, very well. So anyway, we did a 200 birthday party. We took five different champagnes that she has a hand in making from their product range and we paired different bites with them and the night was fantastic. It really went well and the food that our chef up at Highland Park, his name is Scott, the food he prepared was just awesome. But before that, before the seminar and we had that food pairing extravaganza, I sat down with Delphine and we just took some time to talk about her experiences in Champagne, why she's working as a winemaker in Champagne. She's actually from there. I asked her why there aren't any winery dogs. When I was traveling through Champagne, why I didn't see any. She's basically like, that's American and shut me down. But she was really, really gracious, super smart. So I hope that you, Jeff, enjoyed the interview. Absolutely. And ladies and gentlemen, Delphine Laborde. If you could, Delphine, tell me a bit about how you got started in wine. In wine? Actually, I was born in Reims, in the Champagne region. And I grew up in a wine making family. Okay. So I started at a young age to focus on wine, on viticulture, on everything. How many members of your family make wine? My parents have a small vineyard, in the region. Do they sell to a champagne house? Do they sell to...? They sell grapes to champagne houses. That's great. That's awesome. So you grew up amongst the vines? Exactly. So it's very easy for you to get into it? Yes. It's my culture. It's in my blood. Great. How many years at Veuve Clicquot? At Veuve Clicquot, almost six years. And you enjoy it quite a bit? Of course. How many are on the wine making team there? We are ten. Ten winemakers. During the year, how active are you in the vineyards? So I'm responsible for plot selection. So we identified in our vineyard, house vineyard, some very interesting plots of vines. I'm responsible for them. We do a separate vinification of them. And this selection is for La Grande Dame, so the most prestigious blend, which is always a blend of eight Grand Cru villages from our vineyards. So during the year, I visit the plots of vines, discussing with the viticulture team and taking decisions. So very active, I guess. Yeah, very active. Well, is that... you like to do that part? Do you like to get out into the vineyards? Yes, yes, very much. What do you like about it? I mean, just being outside? Yeah, being outside, but it's more than that, I think. So everything starts in the vineyards. The quality. The quality starts in the vineyards. Naturally. And I think as a winemaker, it's very important to have a... to focus on the vineyards, on the quality of the grapes. Right. because you can't make good wine from bad grapes. Exactly. It can be a difficult region for viticulture. It is. Champagne. Yeah, it is. What are some difficulties you guys face often? It's a cold climate. So we can have frosts. In winter, in spring. Then we can get hail also. It can be very humid, wet weather. Yeah. Can get diseases in the vineyards. Frost and fungus and rot and hail. Yes. It's amazing that you, as a region. But in some years, everything is okay. Of course. It depends. Those are the years you make vintage champagne. Last year was everything perfect until end of august, when we got a lot of rain just before the harvest. Which is almost always detrimental. Yes. Yeah. So how did it play out? What happened after the rain? Did you have to wait to start picking or longer or? No, not really. We had to hurry a bit. Okay. You tried to beat the rain. Yes. Okay. Yes. Were you successful? Yes. Okay, good. Yes, but we lost 20, 30 percent of the potential crop. So smaller crop but still good. Smaller crop and good quality at the end. Okay. That's interesting. Then 16? 16 was a better year. It was like the opposite weather. It was very difficult in spring, summer, very a lot of rain again. We are very worried. But actually at the end, the maturation was perfect. So maybe quality is better. So July, august, it started to dry up, got sunnier and then got better that way. Lucky. And the same for 15, no? 15 was pretty good. 15 was very dry year. Yeah. So no disease, good quality, small crop, but very high quality. Better, even better. What treatments do you prefer to stop diseases in the vineyards? As far as the sprays, or what do you like to do to kind of stop fungus and mold from growing? Ah, so the idea is to help the vineyard to defend itself. Of course, if the pressure is too important, then we have to spray but at least as possible, of course. We are very reactive. We know very much, very precise with the weather forecasts. Yes. So we can be active at the right moment. Who are some of your favorite or most iconic winemakers that you look up to? My first idea was Avershape de Carre. Okay. Dominique de Marville is a very, very good winemaker. But then outside of Champagne, maybe I would go to Burgundy, I think, which is one of my second favorite region. Have you made wine in Burgundy? No. I was never working in Burgundy. I visited many wineries, but never for working. Would you like to do that someday, if you could? Yes. Yes. I wish I could do it. Like a little hiatus, one harvest. It's unfortunate. It's never too late. No, it's never too late. Exactly. Do you collect wine? I do. With predominantly champagne bottles. Sure. What's your oldest bottle of champagne that you have? In my cellar. It's my year. It's Vintage 83. What's the producer? It's a small one. It's not known. A small producer in the Côte des Blanc, a grower. Sure. But who offered me the bottle. That's lovely. because it's my year. Are you going to open it? I'm waiting for the right moment. I'm waiting. It's hard to find that moment, isn't it? Yes, it is. because you don't want to wait too long. And I find that when we, those of us that collect wine, we're waiting for these wonderful moments to rise and they just don't come. From 2023, when I got 40. On your birthday. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. I wonder what it will be like. I have just one bottle, so it will not be a big party. But maybe one or two extras and you. My family, I think. Your family. Good. Why not? That sounds good. So I went around Champagne last April and really enjoyed myself. And I had a funny little observation. And I noticed in the United States and in Italy, elsewhere, everybody has winery dogs. Now I understand the prestige of Champagne and I understand the culture, but out in the farms, are there winery dogs in Champagne? Yes. Is it as common there as it is here? So it's not common, like in a Champagne house, to communicate about a dog winery, like in the US. It's different in Champagne. The culture is different. Yes. But then you can find winery dogs. So I know our seller master has a dog, for instance. Okay. Once he did a picture with a journalist, because the journalist asked to take a picture of the dog with him, seller master. It's the only picture I've seen like this. It's very rare. I don't communicate about any dogs. I don't know a brand, so a famous champagne brand communicating about a dog. No. Never seen it. No, it's just not part of the culture in Champagne. I think it's just a question of culture, Champagne. Am I wondering over one region? I don't think so. I think it's not French. But yes, I guess it's just not part of the deal there. So in Champagne, no, for sure not. So in the US, it's systematic? I would say definitively yes. Oh, yeah. It's just a thing. It's just a thing, yeah. Everybody's got to have their winery dog. In fact, there are a whole collection of books of photos that are dedicated just to winery dogs. Really? Yeah. Wow. I know. Oh, that is different in France. Let's talk about the future of Veuve Clicquot. You're here to celebrate, well, let's go past and then future. You're here to celebrate the 200th birthday of Rosé. I mean, that's amazing. We have a big event, press event in March. So we're going to welcome journalists from different countries. And so we're going to taste many wines focused on Rosé, red wines from our vineyards from different years. So it's going to be a big event. And for me, of course, it's a very nice opportunity to share this tradition of Rosé that we have at Veuve Clicquot. And to pay tribute to Madame Clicquot who created the first Rosé by blending 200 years ago. How iconic was she? Amazing story. Yes. Does she come up a lot in the day to day? Does she seem to be a common subject? Yes. Really? I think her obsession for quality is very important for us in the winemaking team. Her motto was only one, quality is the finest. And it's very true today for us working as a winemaker. Only the best? Only the best. No compromise with quality. Only the best grapes and the best selection. It's not easy to do? No, it's not. It's not. But I think it's a key to quality. Yeah. Well, in concert with creating Rosé as far as the blended wine and champagne, she's also credited for inventing remoise or riddling. So, what wines do you riddle by hand at Veuve Clicquot, apart from using the Gyro Palette for the rest? Of course, the majority of the bottle is riddled by machine. And actually, at the end, you get the same result by machine or by hand. So, the only bottles that we cannot riddle by machine today are the big bottles of La Grande Dame. Okay. So large format Grande Dame are by hand. Yes. That's a difficult job. It is. I'm not sure. It's a bit technical. For me, you're in a cellar, you're in a cave all day. It's dark and musty. Special conditions. Yes. But I think that it's nice that they do that because at least you have one Grande Dame, whatever size it is, you've got one bottling that's still made in the way that she might have. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, I really enjoy that. But the rest, obviously by machine because that's what everybody does. I think people think that the machine, it might not be as romantic, but they sometimes have an idea that, like you said, it's less quality. And do you find that you have to kind of talk people out of that sometimes when they're thinking about mechanization in winemaking and they, everyone wants that kind of handmade, artisan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. People always think that if it's done by hand, it's better. Right. It's not always true. No. It can be true. It's not always. So some things can be done mechanically and that's good today. It's more repeatable. If you had to do however many bottles you make, which I assume it's quite a few every year, if you had to do all that by hand, the quality would actually be in the toilet. The quality would be down, down, down. And you would need an army of people to do it. Yeah, yeah, actually, yes. And there would be no room in the caves because you'd have just as many people as bottles to handle it. It would be impossible without the machines. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we can do more today. Absolutely. Yeah, it's great. And when it comes for disgorgement, how many bottles are disgorged kind of at one in one kind of false soup through the machine? How many go at one one turn? So we have somewhere where we can put all the bottles to be refrigerated with ice. And then it's about 100 bottles. Okay. Then that goes down up. Yes. Yes. So 100 at a time. And we disgorge almost every day. Yes. You must. Every day of the year. You must do. Yeah. And are those large format Grand Am, are they disgorged by hand? Yes. Okay. They are. So from start to finish. So we do more disgorgement by hand than riddling by hand. So riddling, as I said, riddling by machine is very, very common. And about disgorgement, so we do quite a lot of disgorgement by hand. Like for, if we have special bottles, we need to check the quality. So it's easier if you disgorge by hand. You can check the quality and then add the liqueur. And if you want a special dosage or something like this. So you have some bottles that you kind of make like to order more or less for special occasions, special clients, special people. Yes. And those would be the support. Special requests, yeah. Oh, that's great. That's great. You guys do that. How do you feel about the value added packaging that makes Veuve Clicquot so popular? Do you collect those things yourself? I have some at my home, yes. I was just wrote some notes down in the list of what, you know, the arrow, the cork. Oh gosh. Well, this is only that what is available now. This isn't however many goes back. But my favorite was the megaphone that doubles as an ice bucket. Yeah. For the Rosé. The megaphone, yeah. So scream your love for Valentine's Day. Let's see if I have anything else that I wanted to ask you. I think there's, oh, and then for the future, what emerging markets do you kind of see are going to be the most important? Maybe not in terms of volume, but in terms of exploration. Exploration? I would say India, India, yeah, more than China. It will be in Asia. Sure. Yeah, I think so. But India, you're getting more and more representation there. Yeah. Yeah. Is it? For exploration. It's not about the volume. Not the volume, yeah. It's more for exploration. Yeah. For volume, though, who do you think gets the most? Is it United States right now or is it China? Yeah, it's US. It has to be. Yeah. Kind of by a landslide, right? I mean, we take the most. US is first and second is Japan. In the champagne region, do you drink champagne since you live there? Do you drink champagne almost every night? Almost. If we celebrate, it's always champagne. We don't think about something else. No, because why not? Why would you? Well, listen, Delphine, it's been great to speak with you, and thank you for coming back to Binny's. Thanks for taking part in Barrel To Bottle as well as continuing education later tonight here. It's going to be good. It will be a good one. I think so. I appreciate it. Someday you will find me Carpeneat the last slide In a champagne supernova That was a really interesting insight into such an iconic brand. I know. And with somebody who is one of ten people who have their hands in that brand, you know, from that position of a wine maker, that's something. That was really cool stuff. Yeah, she's cool. She's actually super fun. Super fun to talk to. She sounded like, yeah. Yeah. You guys sound like you don't blast. She's very soft spoken and very gentle. We were joking around after I got a glass of champagne in her later on that night. Man, it was, she's great. Oh, I'm sure she's got some stories to tell. Well, you know, what happens in Highland Park stays in Highland Park. No, really, really great. I wish that I could speak with more women in wine, but also as smart and gracious and fun and lovely as she is. So I really, really enjoyed and I'm thankful for the opportunity to speak to Delphine Laborde of Veuve Clicquot. So, ladies and gentlemen, let's get to our customer Q&A. And of course, I think our listeners know that if I write a champagne question, Kristen can't help herself. You can't control it. I'm going to get 20 bucks if I just go straight to the brain. So we've got Seth E from Geneva. He writes, in your opinion, what is the best bang for your buck champagne? Well, Seth, you've come to the right place. Well, bang for your buck is kind of relative, right? because it just depends on what your spending limit is. Some people might find that's $30, but honestly, some people could say bang for your buck is $100 because it drinks like a dream, right? So I kind of have a few different price points represented. I thought bang for your buck, the first thing, and I know it's not just because I did the podcast with Delphine and all that, but the Veuve Clicquot, the Vintage Brute, the 2008 gold label is, oh my God, does that over deliver for $75 out of control? So that's kind of the top end of price when I think bang for your buck. But I just thought of relativity in the monetary sense, and I thought, no, this is perfect. It really is. It drinks well beyond its price point. But coming back down a bit, we have this Louis de Saucy, it's S-A-C-Y. That's actually a really solid bottle of champagne. We have it on $29.99, sometimes on sale for around $25. So I think you're not going to find really fizz under $30. Champagne fizz. I mean, this is real champagne. This is the champagne champagne. You're not going to find it really too much under $30. That's about the lowest that we're going to go. And so for $29.99, that's a really good value. You know what? I even tasted the Heitzek Monopole, the blue top, that you can find around $30 as well. And I thought last time I tasted it, I'm like, you know what? This is pretty darn good. That's real. I mean, it's really kind of overlooked, I think. It's pretty good value for 30 bucks. But really the place you're going to save money, get bang for your buck, is in the grower champagne category. So go into Binny's and say, show me your growers. because that's where you're going to get the artisan, the kind of lesser known, you know, we call it farmer fizz, right? Small production, the total family owned, all that stuff you kind of look for. And so that's where you're going to save. So Etienne Douais is a great producer, Croissant, I absolutely love them as well. So check out the grower champagne category for bang for your buck. Good question, Seth. Thanks, buddy. You got 20 bucks. Go buy some grower fizz, man. There you go. Enjoy. You need some sushi. Absolutely. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you have a bubbly week. Thank you for hanging out with us again. I hope that you enjoyed Delphine Laborde and Veuve Clicquot. I know I did. You don't get that everywhere. You don't. No, she was cool. Very cool. So thanks for listening, folks. Jeff, I'll see you next week. Well, yeah, keep tasting. Until then, yeah, keep tasting. Ciao.