Interview: Veuve Clicquot’s winemaker Marie Charlemagne on what makes the brand a standout

Hi Marie. Can you introduce yourself and give us a background on your role at Veuve Clicquot?

I was born and raised in a family in a village called Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in Champagne — it’s a famous village that’s known for its chardonnay. My parents share a passion for wine and chardonnay, and I wanted, firstly, to have a background in viticulture to learn how to grow any plants. So I studied economics engineering and analogy. At some point, I wanted to become a flying winemaker, so I travelled to Oregon and that’s where I fell in love with pinot noir. I also taught people in the vineyard to prune the vines and respect the plants in South Africa. I went back to France after working in Australia — at first, I was in Burgundy, then I had the opportunity to work as an analogist and in charge of innovation and development at Veuve Clicquot.

You’ve worked for different wine estates but ultimately decide to go back to Champagne. What was the driving force behind that?

It’s part of my roots and all my family is there. I loved discovering red wines around the world, but I wanted to make champagne.

Less than one-third of winemakers in the world are women. How does it feel being one of the three female winemakers at Veuve Clicquot?

I think the number is slowly increasing. Usually it’s a male-dominated field, but now women are getting more involved in the wine industry and that’s a good point. Madame Clicquot was quite a visionary and she had a big involvement in the wine industry, so we always keep her philosophy in mind at Clicquot. When I first saw the job alert, I wanted to apply because this is about Madame Clicquot. I’m proud to be a part of the female winemaking team here.

Climate change is impacting winemaking. How is Veuve Clicquot navigating this issue?

Yeah, climate change is impacting the wine profiles, so there is a delay in the maturity of the grapes. As the temperature gets warmer, the sugar vapourises faster, so there is a delay in the aromatic maturity and flavours. So we need to choose the right picking date. We normally check on the sugar level of the grapes instead of tasting it, but now we need to go to the vineyard to taste each of the plots as we can’t focus on the chemistry anymore. We will go to the vineyard three weeks before harvesting and taste each plot of the berries every two days to make sure we choose the right picking date as it is very important to reach the perfect maturity of the grapes. Also, we experiment with new rootstocks, grapes varieties and what’s the best viticulture for it. For instance, should we remove the leaves from the vineyard or should we plant the row in another way to face the sun to know how it works and what works best regarding climate change.

How is Veuve Clicquot embracing technology and innovation in its winemaking process?

We will not change the blending of the yellow label and the tasting committee, but we will try to improve the process. For instance, we enhance the process to make sure everything is perfect, create more transparency for the consumers, go through the naturality of the input and generate a new cuvée.

What’s an emerging trend in champagne right now?

I would say this is a lot about terroir — we want to see the link between the plot and the taste of the champagne. We don’t want the full-body wine that we used to drink before but elegant wine and something delicate. Also, there’s a trend for less sugar. The yellow label used to have 10 grams per litre; now it’s nine grams. We decrease the dosage, and this is quite a huge thing.

What are your thoughts on natural wine?

I’m quite confused with natural wine. I love the philosophy and the way that we are going organic and natural, but you also need to keep the scientific part of it for it to make sense. For instance, to be natural, you can’t have sulphites in the product, but for wine travelling from France to Malaysia, it’s impossible to conserve without it. So you need to find a good balance to be natural and yet make beautiful wine.

What’s your favourite way to enjoy a glass of champagne? Describe your favourite food and Champagne pairing.

I love quite a lot of champagne and the complexity that we can reach with time. Champagne is also a wine, the aspect of the bubbles will become very fine and the wine aspect is becoming more obvious when you finish it all. I love the spices, the complexity and the intensity that we can reach in terms of flavours. My favourite champagne is the 1990s La Grande Dame because it’s so intense, complex and rich — I love it. I am a cheese person, so cheese and champagne, for sure. I love old Comté and old Parmesan with some sea salt.

What’s a faux pas when it comes to drinking champagne?

Warm champagne is a no-go and ice in champagne is a no, especially with the yellow label and La Grande Dame. However, we have a champagne that is dedicated to cocktails called the Rich Champagne. It is created to be combined with ice and a fresh ingredient. Secondly, avoid overly spicy food as you won’t be able to taste the wine properly. Thirdly, it’s a no to drink champagne in a flute glass as all the flavours will be in direct contact with the atmosphere and you will not taste the champagne fully.

What do you think distinguishes Veuve Clicquot from the rest of the champagne Houses?

The heritage of Madame Clicquot, the modernity with a twist and the wine expertise.

What are you working on next?

We are working on the red wine for the Champagne Rosé. It’s difficult to find a plot to adapt to the red wine as Champagne is adapted to make champagne, so selecting a new plot in the region where we can adapt the wine is my main mission now.