Innovation In A Stodgy Industry

Alexandre Penet Champagne

My wife and I have been wine lovers since a glass of 1984 Glen Ellyn Merlot crossed our lips. I think I have built and drunk through three cellars at this point.

On our journey to France we stopped to see my friend Alexandre Penet. He is an MBA from Chicago Booth where I met him.

Alexandre’s family has had this chateau for the last 400 years. He originally went into mechanical engineering and finally was pulled into the family business.

His engineering background affects the way he looks at things and his Booth background helps him figure out the marginal costs of innovation. People have seemingly good ideas but in practice they don’t work.

For Alexandre it meant monkeying with the wine making process. A lot of the champagne we drink in the world has a higher dosage of sugar than he puts in. That is the second fermentation in champagne that gives it bubbles. Alexandre’s champagne tastes more like wine and as you are tasting them you pick up aromas and flavors in it just like you would a french burgundy.

We tasted one champagne that would pair excellent with a grilled fish. Not flabby with acidity and smooth on your palate.

The other super cool thing Alexandre did back in 2008 was applying the burgundian logic to his vineyards. For example, he has a grand cru designated vineyard that is north facing. The soil is dense chalk. It was planted years ago to pinot noir and chardonnay. Not only that since they didn’t supervise the planting, it is totally random which vine is which.

A lot of growers would separate the grapes. Not them. They crush them all together and make a single vineyard blend. Alexandre also ages them longer than the someone like Veuve Cliquot would age. This gives his wine depth and complexity most products do not have.

The champagne he produces would be fantastic with a Thanksgiving meal where there is no rhyme or reason for all the dishes. Regular still wines just aren’t as versatile and cannot stand up to the varying flavors. His can.

Alexandre Penet also was at the forefront of “grower champagne”. He practically invented it. A lot of people caught on by 2016 but he became a champagne auteur when people thought he was nuts to do it.

There are a lot of other things Alexandre can do in the process that many of the “name” brands don’t do. For example one of the first things I noticed was the way he pruned his vines. Lots of air can get through.

This year the harvest was complex due to rain. His vines were affected but he was able to avoid a lot of the mildew and rot which occurred in other vineyards.

It is hard to buy new vineyards. His have been in his family for 400 years! Vineyard ownership can be archaic like Burgundy.

Probably one of the hardest problems to solve is distribution. USA Prohibition Laws has created an anticompetitive situation where a few distributors can choke competition. That also limits freedom of choice for Americans and drives up prices.

This is one thing that could be addressed in a Trump administration. Deregulate the archaic system and make it competitive!

Whomever directs BATF should do this. Like “little tech” it will allow smaller brands to compete.

You still can order direct from Penet and get wine by Christmas. I am ordering a couple of cases. Look him up on the internet. Recently the champagne he named after his two daughters received a score of 95 points from critics.