Champagne Legends 1.0
Every bottle tells a story. What’s Yours? Every week we interview people in the world of Champagne on their iconic bottles.
Now & then TheChampagneSommelier will interview some of the true legends of Champagne. He will ask a few questions about their company, their profession current trends, etc.
This week we had a bubbly chat with Benoît Gouez – Chef de Caves at Moët & Chandon.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
BENOÎT GOUEZ
Describe yourself in a few sentences!
BENOÎT GOUEZ ‘It’s quite delicate to talk about oneself…I feel I am intuitive, demanding, open-minded, meticulous, respectful, forward-thinking.’
How did you get into the champagne profession ?
BENOÎT GOUEZ ‘Nothing in my background predestined me for this role of Chef de Cave at Moët & Chandon. I don’t come from a long line of winemakers.
I am actually not from the Champagne region, as my family is from Brittany and I grew up in Normandy, two regions without any vineyards. I didn’t have any early interests in wine, I did scientific studies, and I was especially interested in biology so I entered the National College of Agronomy in Montpellier in 1990. It was only at that time that I started to become interested in wine.
My career has been a result of a series of chance encounters and fortunate circumstances. I arrived to Champagne in 1998, and took my first assignment as assistant winemaker at Moët & Chandon. I have been immediately attracted by the combination of technical skill and sensitivity at our Maison, the values of pleasure and sharing wine, and the opportunities to travel (physically or even virtually).
In 2005, I was promoted to Chef de Cave at 35 years old and since then I have been the guardian of the Moët & Chandon’s character and spirit, building and leading a diverse team of ten winemakers – men and women of different ages, backgrounds and countries – with one mission in mind: respect and enhance the noble product of our terroir to craft excellent champagnes, defined as our interpretation of the grapes.’
