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In interesting times, wine lends poetry to business strategy; to hack it just for the tasting notes is literally tragedy.
A going-enterprise for 500 years sees revolutions and volatile markets from the commanding heights. From whence, its fortune?
To the East, Luck is three: Heaven Luck, Earth Luck, Man Luck; right time, right place, right people.
In sync with the seasons, winegrower plays conduit for Heaven and Earth, trinity, in rhythm, harmony and prosperity.
Voila, Château Margaux, luck, made with savoir-faire. It hums with all who will help it discover anew.
Robb Report Malaysia met the ebullient Aurélien Valance (pictured above), Château Margaux’s deputy managing director, as he arrived for dinner at Sabayon in EQ Kuala Lumpur, organised by its Singapore and Malaysia distributor Bordeaux Liquid Gold. It was another occasion and specialty of BLG, after the first dinner on these shores by Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Mouton Rothschild, and Château Haut-Brion, to mention just the Left Bank.
The evening’s six-course dinner was paired with a wine selection of vintages sourced directly from the revered cellar of Château Margaux. Guests enjoyed a line-up comprising the 2020 Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux, the 2019 and 2009 Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux, as well as the 99-point Robert Parker 1996 vintage and 100-point 1990 Château Margaux—the stuff of legends in the world of oenology.
On an evening that was also graced by His Excellency Axel Cruau, Ambassador of France to Malaysia, the culinary team of Sabayon—led by chef Steve Ariffin, EQ Kuala Lumpur’s chef de cuisine—served up a feast of langoustines, venison, slow-cooked pigeon breast, Irish duck, and a dry-aged tenderloin over charcoal to enhance the complex notes and nuance of the wines.
The night would then be shaped by Château Margaux and Valance, who spoke of how the château had gradually improved the overall quality of all of its wines through less production. “In 1982, 75 per cent of the vineyard’s production was Château Margaux and the rest was Pavillon Rouge. Now, only 35 per cent of the same production is Château Margaux, which means it’s now halved—but the quality and processes have improved all across.”
Valance would then indicate how the tasting of vintages separated by a decade allowed the advantage of knowing how the younger wines could taste in 10 years. From the cool vintage of the 2009 to the warm vintage of the 1996, below are just some of the berries of business wisdom we’ve picked from our chat with Valance, including how the 1996 vintage changed his life.
Recruit by epiphany
An enterprise for the ages requires no less. As the budding president of his b-school’s wine society, Valance had invited top chateau bosses to visit. Corrine Mentzelopoulos—the French-Greek businesswoman who owns and runs the prestigious Bordeaux wine estate—came bearing a Château Margaux ’96.
“I like to say good wines bring pleasure, great wines bring emotion. It was my first real emotion. And, at the end of the day, I went straight to her and asked her for an internship,” Valance recalls. “And I remember this wine. Because, even if it was so young (in 2001), it was so complete, so perfumed, so soft at the same time—and it changed my life.”
Don’t sweat the assets
Unlike with extractive industries, vineyards can naturally regenerate. But for how long before fine perfume fades into nothing? “Honestly, if you treat your soil with a lot of respect, forever. We have been making wines on the same vineyard for the past four or five hundred years, depending on the plot,” Valance says. “And they still do magnificent wines. We have no plan of adding another winery or to buy other plots.”
Upside is from enlightenment
Assemble a matrix of variables, of known unknowns and unknown unknowns: biodynamic, organic, varietal, plot, massal selection (vines from subplots), rootstock, etc. “We are always trying to improve our wine.”
Delayed gratification multiplies lifetime value
“We will have the final answer after 50 years. And I find it fascinating, to know that I won’t know the answers of this expedition.” Meanwhile, Valance can’t wait to assess all the most recent findings with the team every Wednesday.
Style is forever
As informed by a vineyard map of organoleptic qualities (first edition, 1710): “Some plots bring the perfume, some plots bring weight and power, some plots bring something else,” Valance says. “We do not make the kind of wine that we like, and especially not the kind of wine that the market wants because the trend changes.”
Mint your own gold reserves
“We are family-owned, so we can have this very long-term vision. We have enough stocks of the past 50 years to be able to sell some (during crises). We don’t have an objective of sales but of stocks,” Valance says. “I know the minimum bottles of any format of any vintage I must still have in the cellar in 30 years, for the next generations.” So now we know where all the ’82s are stashed.
