6th generation of the family!
In this fourth episode, Caroline Meesemaecker talks with Cyril Delarue, Director of Business Development, about her love for the brand and her desire to make Bollinger shine around the world.
Could you introduce yourself, please?
“Cyril Delarue, 41 years old, father of 3, and I’ve been the Director of Business Development at Champagne Bollinger since 2018. Before that, I spent 5 years in the United States, working for the group, which includes Bollinger as well as all the other brands under its umbrella.”
What’s your secret in the mornings when you wake up, to still have so much energy after 9 years with Bollinger?
“Well, maybe not exactly when I wake up, but I do drink a lot of Bollinger! So that helps, it gives you a boost and keeps you young. It helps a lot! But more seriously, Champagne Bollinger is a brand you fall in love with when you discover it. One of the reasons for that is because it’s a family-owned business.
We’re nearing 200 years of history, with the same family at the helm of Champagne Bollinger since it was founded. That’s incredibly rare—there must only be two or three other Champagne houses in the same situation. This creates a very strong sense of long-term vision. In fact, when you’re part of the family—I’m part of the 6th generation—the goal is to pass this business, this jewel, on to the next generation.
Another key element is our ability to create what I believe are legendary wines. We can talk about Vieille Vigne Française, R.D., Grande Année… These are truly iconic wines. The fact that we have the ability to produce these wines, year after year, is quite extraordinary and very exciting. Sharing this great news is something I enjoy a lot.”
If you had to summarize “Bollinger” in three words, what would they be?
“Summing it up in three words is going to be tough, because we like to develop on Bollinger, but I’ll give it a try.
The first word: independence. We are a family-owned and independent business, both in our ownership, of course, but also financially. And in the way we think and make our wines, for example. Being independent forces you to be different, to seek out solutions that allow you to maintain that independence. Today, the entire family is committed to keeping us “family-run,” and that’s a very important point for us: independence is key.
The second word: authenticity. Authenticity is about being real, being transparent. When someone visits Champagne Bollinger, they can see that the bottles on the riddling racks are the very same ones that will be hand-disgorged, hand-riddled, and will end up on the table of the person visiting. That’s authenticity.
The third word: innovation. In the end, we don’t uphold authenticity just to create a museum at Champagne Bollinger. No, every traditional step we’ve chosen to preserve is there because it benefits the wine; it’s a true mark of quality. Alongside that, we have a lot of innovation. This balance between tradition and innovation is also a hallmark of Champagne Bollinger. We have a research and development team of five people, who work to deepen our expertise in Pinot Noir and our terroirs.”
How to manage its allocations between the different distribution networks and develop an e-commerce strategy?
“Currently, allocations are spread across 120 markets. They are defined for these 120 markets, with a distribution by cuvée and format. So it’s quite strict. And next year, the pressure will be such that we will implement phasing. This means we will ask our clients to collect their allocated volumes on specific dates throughout the year. We’re really moving towards a very strict allocation process. Our commitment is to provide visibility to our clients: we pledge to allocate their volumes over a rolling 12-month period. That’s the first point.
As for how these allocations are distributed, even though we have a strong retail strategy, the goal today is not to seek new accounts in terms of volume. We can’t increase our volume for e-commerce. Our primary objective is to control our distribution and ensure visibility. We want our message to be consistent everywhere on the internet. That’s truly the number one goal. We have two pilot markets, France and England, working with us on this approach. They’ve fully embraced it, and we’ve even seen a real understanding once we explained that we weren’t aiming to increase volumes but to improve our distribution visibility first.
Later on, when we have larger volumes—and of course, we’re not going to remain in allocation mode for the entire lifespan of Bollinger—at some point over the next 200 years of Bollinger’s history, we will have the necessary volumes. At that point, we can consider expanding our distribution. And at least by then, we’ll be ready to make informed decisions: this site, yes, with such an investment, because it’s well-rated, and that other site, no, or with a different type of investment because it’s less well-rated, and so on.”
