Our very honorable guest at St.Andrea was Christophe Deola, from Maison Louis Latour. We had a very exciting and meaningful conversation about their philosophy, habits at the winery and more. Enjoy the authentic and unique thoughts of a world-famous burgundy winemaker!
Is it the first time for you being in Hungary?
No, it is the second time, actually. First I came to Hungary in 2009 to see some friends in Miskolc and then I have been trying to visit some wineries too. I spent two days in Tokaj then I came to Egerszalók, because I have read an article about St.Andrea Winery. At that time I met György Lőrincz Jr., who later (this January) asked me to come for this big event to the St.Andrea Winery.
Have you tasted any special and memorable wine in Hungary before?
I have tasted some really nice ones. We tried a lot of nice Pinot Noir and I really enjoyed Kékfrankos too. I think Kékfrankos is a very nice, easy drinkable, the kind of wine you can have with lot of meals and fruits. Full bodied, but at the same time has light acidity.
And I have a good memory of a wine tasting in Tokaj with Attila Homonna. I remember we made a huge tour around the vineyard and at the end, we went to his winery which was really small. At the hillside there was a blowing machine what he put behind the tractor. He took a bottle with two glasses and put them on the top of the blowing machine and we started tasting, sitting by the tractor. The view was beautiful. And the wines were really nice.
It seems like a really good start with Hungarian wines. And today, a couple of years later, you went to see István Szepsy, one of our biggest winemakers. How was the visit?
It was very interesting, because he is so passionated. It was even hard to ask him questions because it can be seen how much information he wanted to give about the places. He was so enthusiastic about them. It has also amazed me that there has been thousand years or even more of viticulture and winemaking in your history and in a few decades, it has all been broken down. And now the people are working so hard and with so much passion to rediscover all that knowledge that has been accumulated in the prior years. It made me realize the value we have in Burgundy, all the small things we know about our places.
Do you think there is a place for any Hungarian wine in the restaurants of Burgundy? Or French people prefer drinking French wines?
French people love drinking French wines. I think people, who are coming for tourism in Burgundy, they want to have wines from France and particularly from Burgundy. And after that, there is a small market for the people like me who are in the wine business, the wine makers, but also holders, who are very happy to drink something else. But it is a very small market. And regardless of their qualities, I think Hungarian wine is not very well distributed, not very well known in France.
When you go to a restaurant, what is the wine you choose? Is it depends on the food you are eating or the mood that you are having or what the sommelier is offering to you?
I will try something outside of Burgundy, probably. And it is really depends on the food, but this is what we have talked a lot about with Gyuri yesterday. I really like Kékfrankos and I think it is a little bit the same like Beaujolais wines or some Côtes du Rhône wines. Kitchen has changed a lot, you have less sauce and less fat and so on – so nowadays people and I am also part of it, more often want red wines. And if you want red wines that can match with poultry or things like that, you probably want a lighter style red smooth wine with little tannins. Just like Kékfrankos.
Please tell me about your everyday life when you are at home in Burgundy. When there is no harvest, no wine tasting, no any big event, just a really simple day. You wake up in the morning, your calendar is nearly empty … what do you do?
After I wake up, I have my breakfast and then I go to work. It is very important for me every morning to see the guys who are working at the vineyards before their start. There is a little time when everybody changes their clothes before they would head to the vineyards, when they have the chance to give me information what they have seen the previous day. I tell what I want them to do that day and so on. Then I spend half an hour drinking coffee with my assistant, talking and sharing information with each other.
And then during the growing season I will spend one and a half hour walking in the vineyards. I think it is very important to accumulate information about how the vine is going. It is like you walk in the vineyard and see things, see the land, if there is a disease or you see a plant that is having an issue. But most of the time you do not see anything that is meaningful by itself. But doing that every day, I believe that accumulate you a feeling about how the vine is going.
Like the color of the leaves maybe are going yellowish and you stay up all night, because it seems the vine is not going very well, maybe because there is not enough sun or whatever. With doing that, you really get a sense of what is happening in the vineyard, even if you are not really able to explain what you feel or solve the problem. So, I often spend a lot of time just walking in the vineyard.
Then I’ll go to the office and sort things out about all of the issues what you might do when you running a business; signing people to work in the vineyard or arranging tastings and talking about projects with Mr. Latour and so on. Then, if I do not have a tasting or a lunch at noon, I will go to do some sports for an hour and a half.
It is very important to have a lunch break in France. People usually go back home and have lunch with their wife or with the kids, sometimes sleep a bit and then come back to work. The lunch break is usually between one and a half or even 2 hours. It is the moment, the only moment during the day when you know you won’t have any phone calls. It is the time to go have some sports or just clear your mind. Sometimes, this is the time to even solve problems, because you are on your own and your brain can work nicely. And after that, the afternoon is the same.
Go back to work. Usually twice a week, I check on the barrels. We have a very light analogical technique, so it is mostly about looking after the barrels, checking that everything is all right, topping up, smelling it. After that, it really depends on the weather, but in our work the day usually starts when the sun goes up and ends when the sun goes down. In winter I try to be home at maybe 5:30 or 6.00 p.m. Then I cook for my kids and wife, then I read a book and I go to the bed.
How many hectares do you have at the moment?
In Corton, in Burgundy we have almost 50 hectares. Besides that, we have 100 hectares in the Beaujolais, with 30 hectares of Pinot Noir and 70 hectares of Gamay. We have further 80 hectares of Pinot Noir in the south of France, in the Var, like 70 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea.
At the moment, our big project is the Beaujolais region. It has volcanic soil and we believe that we can make really good Pinot Noir on these limestones. We continue planting Pinot Noir, so probably our aim is to have 40 or 50 hectares of Pinot Noir.
How many people are you working with?
There are 200 people working at the Maison Louis Latour. Around 100 people are working in the offices and 100 people between the cellars and the vineyards.
And how many grape varieties do you have?
Three. We have also some tiny beats just for fun. But when you have Gamay, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, you probably have all or at least 95% of what we do. And that is really the philosophy of the Latour Family: we stick to what we know how to do.
For a very, very long time it has been only Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Now, it is also a little bit of Gamay, but that is all. We were always some kind of burgundy variety specialists.
How many bottles do you have per year?
I would say something like 6 million bottles under the Latour label and 2 more million under the Beaujolais and Chevalier Labels. From this, 80% goes to export, mostly to the US, the UK, Japan and Canada, which are our biggest markets.
What is your label “policy”?
This is also something what is very important for us. We put every wine in a special bottle. The word Louis Latour is written on the bottom and on the cork as well. We always say that we cannot be ashamed of something we put in our bottle. Because if so, we’ll have to sell it too. So that is a kind of obligation to us. We do not do anything without our name on it.
There was the Wine Paris Expo recently. Who represents the Latour on events like this? For such a big brand like you, is it still worth participating there?
All the winemakers like me are going there, but only for 1 day from the 3 days wine fest. We have usually spent this day with only shaking hands and meeting with a few people. But it is more about the commercial team because it is really focused on the importers.
Louis Fabrice Latour, who is the head of the company, thinks that it is very important for your reputation to be present on the market. He said that our main market is the restaurants, so we are really focusing on it. He says you need to be on the wine lists, you need to be seen, because if you have never seen, if all of your customers are collectors in the end, do you really exist? It is the same for fairs. If you never present, if people never see you, never taste your wines, they will just forget you one day.
What is the most important thing that you have learned and you want to share with people, concerning making wine, selling wine and giving wine to people?
Always mind about the quality. At every step. We are doing expensive wines. We do our best to make good wines, but that does not make the cut. You need a nice bottle, the labels and the cap would be perfectly put and you need excellent marketing, a nice box and so on. You need all of these to have the right image of what you are building.
But it is also a matter of philosophy. Sometimes Louis Fabrice come to me and says, “We have a big order from Japan. Make sure it is fine. Do extra controls.” And I refuse it. I say, no, we won’t make extra controls. I can’t tell this to my guy. We have attention to everything all the time.
You cannot pay less attention. I think that at every step in the vineyard when putting a label, when delivering a bottle. That is the most important thing. You need to be always focused and trying to do the best and find the best solution. And I think that is a part of the secret.
Who is teaching your colleagues how to keep the high quality?
I like remembering when I had a Japanese person coming to me and asked: “what are your certification?” And I show him a lady working on the labelling line. And he said „oh, she is the one is actually in charge of the quality?” And I said, no, everybody’s in charge of the quality. But this woman, for example, one day came to me and said: “Christophe, look on that label, the barcode of the Chabli ends with 2446 and here is 2346”. And I asked her: “you know the numbers of the barcode by heart?” she said “yes, I know them all”, so when she realized there is an issue with the barcode colony, taking out all of the bad labels on the bottles, making new labels down and so on. So, it is not me or Mr. Latour, but it is the company mind, where everybody teaching everybody, it is a peer pressure.
Is there any goal in your life that you have not achieved yet in this company and you really would like to? Like the best wine ever or other big dream you would like to reach?
I do not know if I have any dreams. There is so much passion and surprise every year in our business, because every year decides what kind of wine it is going to be. I know that it seems very big thing to be in the Wine Spectator but probably I’m prouder of the smaller wines. I think the biggest achievement is probably if I leave the company maybe in 25 years, I’m just thinking that the world has changed, but I have done everything possible for our vineyard and our company to be in a better position. It is a changing world including climate change, global warming and I would like to think, that we have made the right decisions and we are still as well adapt as we were when I arrived. That would be probably a big achievement.
What was your first emotion when you realized that you won a big prize with the wine you made?
It was funny when – I had a colleague of mine, we are good friends and she works at the office in the commercial part of the company and she sent me a message like: “Congratulation champion!” And I was thinking, what is she talking about? I asked her and then she wrote me that: “You are in the number five”. It was very cool, but I just moved on. Then, in the afternoon, I have been going to the commercial part of the company and everybody was so excited, they had many phone calls from the U.S. and said that we have already sold about twenty thousand bottles of the wine. That was the moment I realized how important it was for the commercial part of the company.
But I am probably prouder when I have a lot of respects from another winemaker who tasted my wine and say “it is a good one”.
Photos
www.busakattilafoto.com
www.louislatour.com
Anyone who misses out on Louis Latour’s March 12 tasting now has the opportunity to purchase these gorgeous selections! There are only a few of them!