After a first professional life abroad, with no particular career plan, he moved to Paris and, one thing leading to another, L’Atelier du Vin. His father, Pierre, had successfully developed this family business dating back to 1926, creating a wide range of wine accessories with a focus on function. He has picked up the torch, with joy in mind…
How did you come to join L’Atelier du Vin?
Whether they like it or not, children are immersed in the family company. In our case, my sister, my brother and I were taken here and there, after school, at weekends… There were dozens of times, for example, when I was a child, I found myself at wine fairs in France and elsewhere. Later, when I was old enough to make my own decisions, I preferred to start by working in the luxury sector, in Hong Kong in particular, doing an MBA. Back in Paris, I quite naturally moved into the offices of L’Atelier du Vin, to continue to immerse myself in a professional world. My father asked me to go with him to a few meetings and, little by little, without any ulterior motive, I joined the company, mainly in sales, in France, before concentrating on international business and eventually running it…
How do you create your accessories?
My father was always at the heart of creation. On a plane, in his car, at a bus stop…, he spent all his time sketching. That’s not the case for me. I don’t have those skills. I’ve had to rethink the way we work. Nowadays, on demand, depending on our projects, I call on designers from all over… Freelancers, some of whom have been with us for years. So much so that many of our creations are not 100% signed by Studio L’Atelier du Vin. For the rest, our DNA remains the same…
Your DNA remains the same, but your target market and therefore your communication have changed…
Yes, we’re now targeting the gift segment. This involves two things. Firstly, we need to create collections of items to give pleasure, rather than single products that meet a single need. Secondly, we need to rethink our message. For a very long time, our communication focused essentially on the quality of the design and production of our products. Of course, we continue to work hard on this, with strength and determination, but with one difference: we don’t say it any more. We’ll see what the future holds, but we believe, without any pretence, that the seriousness of L’Atelier du Vin has in a way been established, and that our brand has, in this respect, earned the trust of our customers. What drives us today is the perceived value of our creations, the emotion they generate. So we’re talking more about pleasure, sharing, the memory of tasting… Everything that contributes to the French art de vivre.
Which products do you think are symptomatic of this new approach?
All of them. I immediately think of the ‘Le Vigneron’ corkscrew and the ‘Le Brasseur’ bottle-opener. This line of two products, designed by Marc Venot, seems totally simple. Yet it took over 3 years of research and development. In our various media, we say little or nothing about their technical sophistication or robustness, in favour of their friendly silhouette and ease of use. More recently, we launched ‘Le Plateau’. A tray with drawers and accessories that can be used to stage a tasting moment. Here again, in our communications, we say very little about the design itself, preferring to talk about the theatrical aspect of this object and the emotions it invites people to share.
Who are your buyers?
35% of our sales are in France, compared with 70% previously, and most of these go to the United States and Asia, particularly China. Americans are very keen on gifts. Their retailers, who specialise in this type of offer, have welcomed our repositioning. The Chinese, for their part, are, in their own way, very attentive to customs, to the fact, for example, that a corkscrew of the sommelier type is used in one situation, a bilame in another… The same goes for decanters or glasses. So our signature ‘Rituals for connoisseurs’ speaks to them.
And what about interior design?
This is our second activity, that of Architecture Intérieure du Vin. Separate from L’Atelier du Vin, this more recent entity targets both professionals and private customers. The former to dramatise their cellar, the latter to indulge themselves. Among our most notable achievements, we have converted the cellars at Château de la Gaude in Aix-en-Provence. These furnishing solutions are delivered flat-packed; their modularity is unrivalled, thanks to some forty possible options; and their durability is noteworthy, since they are designed in steel, the recyclable and indestructible material par excellence, and in solid wood from eco-managed French forests.
Are the same commitments applied to L’Atelier du Vin products?
Of course, despite a fairly wide range of products, on the whole we use a very limited number of materials. In the same way, we prefer small packaging made from recycled materials that can be reused as is. We are also very concerned about the reparability and, beyond that, the durability of our products. L’Atelier du Vin Care enables us to extend our after-sales and repair guarantee for life.
Trust, pleasure of giving, sustainability…: L’Atelier du Vin must interest a lot of brands, doesn’t it?
They do come knocking on our door. And as we make it known, because we don’t work on a white label basis, other brands come to us for new collaborations. Two come to mind. Paul Smith, first of all. We are present in all the brand’s boutiques around the world, with leather cases in its colours, containing a selection of our accessories. On a more local level, Albert Bichot asked us to make custom corkscrews from its 2020 Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru ‘Cuvée Madeleine Collignon’ casks from the Hospices de Beaune estate. But there’s also Paris Society, Netflix…
What are your plans for the future?
L’Atelier du Vin will be 100 years old in 2026. To tell you the truth, I haven’t made much progress on the subject. The very mention of it makes my stomach turn. So that’s our main challenge for the weeks and months to come: to create one or more products that make sense and make a lasting impression, without being too complicated to make. It will be an opportunity for our customers to see us in a new light, as you are doing here.