The Harvests under the sign of pleasure and discovery

From Hamburg, naturalized French, Dorothée de Sigoyer has presided over the destiny of the wine merchant company Les Vendanges founded in 1998 by her husband for more than 15 years., Christol de Sigoyer. A family business that has its roots over a century ago on the Bordeaux domain of Château Bardins. Driven by passion, a nose and a fine knowledge of wine, Dorothée de Sigoyer not only supervises a team of 21 people. It is at the origin of the wine selections that have built the success of Les Vendanges cellars., eight in number today, where it promotes a sincere and straightforward approach to the profession that appeals to customers

Meeting Leader : If you had to define the identity of the Les Vendanges company using a few keywords, which would you choose ?
Dorothée de Sigoyer : Independent family business. Selection of wines, authentic cheeses and beers. Product sincerity. Respect and listen to both customers and suppliers. Respect for the work of the winegrower.

How is the company doing at the start of 2021? ? What are its activities between general public and CHR ?
Cellar sales are going well despite the context of Covid 19. I have the impression that people want to indulge themselves with quality products, also we scrupulously respect the barrier measures. The CHR sale is naturally strongly impacted and in decline, especially because there are no more receptions, or banquets…

If the Les Vendanges brand is very well known, his story is much less. How was she born and how far has she come ?
Christol, my husband, opened the first cellar in December 1998 at the Ermitage. Son of a winegrower, Christol acquired his wine culture in metropolitan France from his family who operates the Château Bardins estate, near Bordeaux, for over a century. His idea was to offer the quality of Château wines to the tables of Réunion by importing them in air-conditioned containers., what not all wine importers did at the time. We also owe it our lovely name "Les Vendanges" !

I joined Christol in March 2000 and in December of the same year our eldest daughter Charlotte was born.. Thereafter, we opened our cellars to the rhythm of the births of our daughters. Our second cellar in 2004 in Grand Bois, shortly after the birth of our second daughter, Aurelie. The Cave de la Montagne in 2005, the year of birth of our third daughter, Camille, and the Etang-Salé cellar in 2008, the year of birth of our youngest daughter, Julia. This was followed in 2011 by the opening of our cellar in Piton Saint-Leu., the first cellar near our home.

Then in 2014, it was the Saint-Louis River, in 2016 Providence and in 2017 Plaine des Cafres. We have always worked in parallel with the restoration, and specifically with the Cap Méchant Group, a long-standing client who entrusts us with the wine part of these restaurants. The restoration represents the equivalent of a ninth cellar. Until 2014, our central depot was located below our home. The reception of our containers was therefore done at home.

I set up the IT management and cash register tool in 2004, we then had two stores with our partner Format, Didier Fauchard's specialist company. At the same time, I gave myself the opportunity to carry out my activities by "teleworking". It initially worked on an ISDN line, which required me to manage connection time well. Later we signed a contract with Mobius for network operation as is the norm today ! From then on I was able to run the business from home and also traveling outside the department at all times.

Do Château Bardins wines hold a special place in Les Vendanges cellars? ?
Completely ! This is our family property, our origins, the starting point of our wine merchant history ! Today, it is my sister-in-law Stella de SigoyerPuel who produces the Château's wines. We talk a lot about the work she does, it's exciting.

You run the business founded by your husband. Can you clarify your respective roles ?
On the main lines, today I have a supervisory role. That is to say, I delegate operational responsibility for our various services : purchase and replenishment, logistics, the in-store sales team, accounting and human resources, administrative management (baux, equipment, etc.), outdoor communication. I coordinate them, and I personally take care of job interviews, professional interviews, supervision of teams when necessary.

I test new forms of supply, the strategies to be implemented, innovations in general ... In short, my role is to make sure everything goes smoothly ! Then I have the pleasure of being at the origin of the selection of our wines, beers, cheeses and other products, it has always been my signature in our stores.
Christol is the privileged interlocutor of our clientele of restaurateurs. And he likes the challenges of new projects, This is why he embarked on a new adventure over the past year which will soon see the light of day ... Christol is behind the establishment of all of our cellars. Me, I like the challenge of structuring and preserving our existing business, to guarantee the jobs it represents. And above all to share my passion for wine through the producers that I select ...

A woman in charge of a wine merchant company, this is not common in a more masculine wine environment. How was your passion for wine born ?

Yes, this is all the more surprising since numerous studies show that women perceive smells better than men ! Wine, "A" wine, contains over 80 different flavors, half of which is found from one wine to another and the other 50% varies… and makes the difference. I know two other women who are very active in the world of wine in Réunion. One is Chris, Nénettes du Vin, who initiated the show of independent ca-vists. And the other is Danièle Rénard, oenologist by profession, who also does great tastings. I recommend them !Passion for wine, and good food in general, was passed on to me by my family. We have always celebrated family meals, in search of authentic products, good ingredients, good raw materials. We practiced distinguishing artificial flavors from natural flavors. It was before everyone talked about "Slow Food" ... My parents love France. Chances of life made the first wine I tasted Château Bardins, during a vacation in Ile d'Yeu. I was 15 years old. Our taste is shaped by what we discover young… We can say that Château Bardins is in a way my Madeleine de Proust !

Discover the world of wine with its almost inexhaustible universe of aromas, was a godsend for the flavor lover that I already was. Added to this is the magic of sharing, of an unforgettable moment that I had experienced during a dinner with an uncle of Christol, Uncle Michet. This magic that we so often experience around a good bottle of wine ... and that makes you want to come back !

What is your background and how did you acquire your experience ?

I started with the press. I graduated from one of the best and most important universities in Germany, la Free University of Berlin, the Free University of Berlin. After obtaining the Magister (the equivalent of a master's degree) in German and English literature and media sciences in 1996, I found my first job at Zitty, a trendy magazine born in the 70s. This bimonthly had a circulation of 80,000 copies.. It was and still is a leading Berlin newspaper to go out. Very quickly, I was appointed to head the drafting of the outing program. I roamed the streets looking for the best restaurants to discover. We also produced guides ...

It was shortly after the wall fell. Bars, remains, clubs techno : the nightlife was at its peak. I remember sending my last restaurant review from Réunion ... Thanks to this work, I was lucky enough to be able to taste a lot of wines, from France and elsewhere. Arrival in Reunion, I followed training at Centhor in sommelier training in the early 2000s. I have also documented a lot in the French specialized press, english and german, including by reading Robert Parker, the famous American oenology critic.

I am a subscriber to the forum of the internationally renowned English wine specialist Jancis Robinson, who edited the Oxford Companion of Wine, an essential reference in the Anglo-Saxon world. With Christol and the children, we surveyed many vineyards during our holidays in metropolitan France or in South Africa. We have visited many wineries and especially their facilities, which is always very instructive ! We have winegrower friends. With them, it's a story of understanding and enriching exchange ! otherwise, I regularly go to the ProWein Show, the most important international trade fair for wines and spirits, an essential trade fair in the world of wine, held in Düsseldorf.

You choose the wines yourself. How do you select them, on what criteria ?

I choose the wines under the sign of pleasure and discovery, the right wine for every tasting moment. The hardest wines to find are everyday wines with fair prices, of good quality, a nice balance, and that don't hurt your head, which can be the case when the wine is too sulphite : we pay close attention to this in the Harvests ! During the tasting, I always ask myself the following questions : what does the color of this wine tell me about its grape variety and vintage ? Does the wine have a healthy and pleasant smell ? Is the bouquet poor, rich, strong or weak ? Do we perceive more fresh notes, blackberries, aged or moldy ? Will this wine keep for a long time or on the contrary, is he at the end of his life ? What is the dominant smell, that of the grape variety, fermentation or maturation ? What is the level of acidity, what is the aftertaste during retro-olfaction ? And the palace, does he confirm the judgment of the nose ? Then I bring it closer to its land, I wonder : is it a typical expression or not ? This is when I consider the system of AOC appellations for French wines when choosing our range.. We offer a wide choice, favoring producer wines, but also Grands Crus (the unmissable magic of the Grands Château de Bordeaux !). We have most of the French AOCs in our range but also many IGP and foreign wines ... I include other tasters for wines that I like less. This guarantees the neutrality of the selection. At the end, it is our customers who decide which wines we keep in our range !

What do you mean by "selection neutrality" ?

I integrate the role of the taster observer in my approach to wine tasting. I do not see in the taster the "omniscient narrator" having a global angle of view, but I integrate it, he is part of the system. As soon as the taster takes into account his presence in the observation he is making, we avoid falling into the trap of our own "blind spot" (I am thinking of the famous blind spot experiment carried out by the French physicist and botanist Edme Mariotte in 1668., figuratively of course). In the wine tasting, our blind spots are our individual mental images of smells, our taste preferences formed culturally in childhood and also by the fact that we do not always taste the same way. As a result, the analysis of an isolated wine is almost impossible, but the comparative analysis of wines is possible, and it is the comparison of the different points of view that we adopt that gives us a more authentic view of the different, and beautiful, possible expressions of wine !

What do you think makes a good wine ?

I always look for the perfect balance between the different axes of taste : alcohol / sugar, acidity and tannins for a red wine ; alcohol / sugar and acidity for a white wine. Ideally they are in harmony, melted into each other. The second notion, it is the persistence of the aromas in the mouth, the famous caudalies. The longer it lasts, the more we enjoy ! I have a preference for frank and sincere wines where you can feel the work of the winegrower and which you can digest well. If possible with body and tannins for the reds, fat for the whites. These are what we call "masculine" wines in the language of stereotypes.

Your offer includes organic wines ...
Indeed, and your question gives me the opportunity to emphasize that the Château Bardins estate is committed to the organic farming process and that it produced its first certified organic vintage in 2019. For many years the "organic" was "only" (but that's already a lot) on the cultivation of vines and not on winemaking. This changed in February 2012 with the application of European legislation for the “organic wine” label which notably further limits the addition of sulphites.. But let's not forget that sulphites are used to stabilize a wine and that they degrade over time. Art, it's about using as little as possible and just enough. You should know that wine also naturally contains it. At least traces of sulphites will always be found in a wine, whether it is organic or not. We have a wide choice of certified organic wines.

Early 2020, you have reorganized the company : why this decision and what is this new organization ?

Because we don't manage eight cellars like four ! Today we have two frames, Didier Liebau et Yann Coat, who are my contacts with the team. They circulate our values ​​and create cohesion, a team spirit. But they are also there to listen and give me feedback on any comments from the team in order to establish two-way communication. I greatly appreciate the discussions we have on the right strategies to adopt. I had an audit carried out in January 2019 by Céline Conti from RH&You. It has been very beneficial to us !

Is there a particular concept of Les Vendanges cellars : in the choice of locations, in the way of presenting the wines, in the way of selling them ?

Despite our size with eight cellars today, we remained wine merchants by the criteria : a, from the selection of our range which is made by tasting only ; of them, through our independence as a family business ; three, by our advice. A cellar is a bit like a library. With us, the customer is really king, we apply ourselves to be as close as possible to their needs and desires, and above all we take pleasure in sharing our passion with him. At the same time, the size of our company allows us to optimize approach costs and offer very attractive prices : our first prize is 4,95 euros. Above all, we want our customers to want to come back, again and again, with us ! This is also why we are not located in city centers, but on the paths back to the house with parking spaces. All our cellars offer the same offer despite different sizes. And since last October we have our own website. It is very recent ! It is a very good tool to communicate with our customers. We matured this long-standing project because I wanted something that looks like us, and it takes time.

Do you plan to sell wines on the internet? ?

We think about it. The model works in metropolitan France and is widely practiced in Germany. In the meeting, distribution would be more difficult to implement. But it is not excluded that we find the right method ...

What is the role of salespeople for you? ?

They have a key role ! They are the ambassadors of our selection of wines and of all our products, they are the ones who convey our values ​​to our customers : sincerity, authenticity, respect… The most important, this is the welcome they offer the customer ! As I have said, they must be attentive to his needs. We must make customers who visit us want to come back. Also our salespeople are commissioned on the average turnover of all stores. What I want to make clear, it is that they are not guided by compensation for the advice they provide to our clients, as I heard it is done elsewhere.

What are your plans for 2021? ?

Just returned Budweiser Czech beer from Budvar, that is to say the original beer that bears this name and the IGP of that name ! The American copy of Budweiser, who wanted to ban the name Budweiser from the original brewery, lost all his cases. This is another story related to the fall of the iron wall and curtain : as long as they existed, the American copy of Budweiser was copyrighted ! This Czech beer complements our wide range of German beers. We took a trip in July 2019 to the Czech Republic to choose our suppliers, Budweiser is the first of two independent breweries that we have selected. It took us longer than expected because of the health crisis, but now she has arrived !

What is the meaning of the little penguin in the company logo ?

We wish to symbolize by the penguin which floats on the ice floe that we import our wines in air-conditioned container, that we respect the product we sell.