Cellar master Hervé Deschamps has hosted many “mamasan dinners” in Japan during his 23 visits, helping powerful managers of geisha clubs detect the floral complexity in his Champagne.
One night in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, the women wearing kimono and outsized diamond rings sip his vintage cuvées at the Ritz Carlton as they listen to “Papa Champagne” describe what goes into bottles Perrier-Jouët, one of the finest houses along the famed Avenue de Champagne in Epernay, the world capital of Champagne.
“The Spring Edition is the flowering of the cherry trees and the first flowers in the gardens in France, with the tiny English daisies blooming with just the morning dew on the tip of the petal,” says Deschamps, recently awarded the prestigious Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution not only to wine, but to culture itself.
Deschamps hopes the mamasans and their escorts ladies will later recount the wine’s poems to their male clients, helping his venerable Champagne house reach one of the world’s most discerning luxury markets.
For the first time, the silver-haired master has brought along a French woman of his own to sit among the courtesans.
Severeine Frerson, 43, had been instructed to shadow Deschamps quietly her first journey to Asia. At the dinner in the hotel’s grand ballroom, she mingled with the kimono-clad women, adapting to local gestures and customs. And when the grand master speaks on-stage to the 200 mamasans, she nods and applauds dutifully at the right moments.
Finally, the reason for her presence is revealed. Deschamps announces his coming retirement and turns towards Frerson; she rises proudly to acknowledge her role as Perrier-Joiuët’s eight cellar master, a secret kept hidden from the house’s biggest market until tonight. Gasps escaped from the normally reserved mamasans.
In his 26 year career as cellar master, Deschamps has personified the grand marque, creating new cuvées and projecting Perrier-Jouët’s taste, story and heritage to the world.
Frerson’s arrival is a monumental change of guard in the house founded more than two centuries ago.
“The cellar’s secrets have passed between just seven men. Now, for the first time, they will pass to a woman,” explains Christophe Danneaux, the head of Perrier-Jouët.
Frerson, a Champagnoise, studied oenology at the University of Reims. In 2002, she joined Piper-Heidsieck as an intern and began working her way up, earning the title of head winemaker after 16 years. She is one of only a handful of women to hold such a position in Champagne.
“When you are at Perrier-Jouët, you create beauty,” Deschamps says. “I will teach Séverine the sensitivity to recognise what is the best”.
Their transmission will take two to five years.
While many wine experts emphasize vinification and ageing techniques, Deschamps says the most important work is done in the field.
“The cellar master’s biggest secret is where to find the right grapes,” says Deschamps, who typically travels to more than 60 press centers per harvest.
It is 8 am, October 15, 2018, and Frerson is driving to the Avenue de Champagne on her first official day at Perrier-Jouet.
There is no elaborate welcoming ceremony, no flowers, not even a glass of Champagne this time. Deschamps offers her something much bigger: the house itself.
When Deschamps shows Frerson her bureau, he presents her with a bronze key to the cellar, holding many thousands of reserve wines in its 10 kilometer chalk tunnels.
“There are not many people who have this key," Deschamps says to a stunned Frerson. She had not expected to be given access to the house’s most prized possessions on day one.
Founded in 1811 in Epernay, the capital of Champagne, Perrier-Jouët’s story begins in a room called Eden, a locked part of the cellar deep in the tunnels 20 meters below ground. Here live the oldest bottles of Champagne in existence today -- two bottles of 1825, verified by the Guinness Book of Records, laying alongside the first bottles of Belle Epoque of the 1864 vintage.
"You're right below our bureau, where the cellar master's spirit comes down to look for inspiration from the most beautiful and the oldest bottles,” Deschamps tells Frerson.
Super Ambassador in osaka
While Frerson has the technical skills to make champagne, she needs to convey her house’s story to the consumers, even if that means sitting as the lone female guest in a club full of suited men and their seductive courtesans.
After dinner in Osaka, the Deschamps and Frerson went on a “market visit” with their Japanese colleagues to the famously expensive bars. Sipping Champagne poured by escort women can cost around USD1,000 per head per hour. The group of five consumed just three bottles of Belle Epoque’s Autumn edition (normally retailing for around USD200-300 per bottle), but because at each bar the head mamasan graced their table with her presence, they paid USD15,000 for the three-hour night out.
“The idea of mamasan is entirely new to me, where you have on the one side the deep respect for tradition and on the other side the sharing of pleasure with a smile,” says Frerson.
From the monastic dark tunnels leading from Eden, the cellar master must remember where the wine will travel. He and she must think of the glitz of Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai and New York where the bubbly will flow deep into the night.
“When I first joined Perrier-Jouët, my cellar master said to me, ‘remember you are not making a Champagne for the cathedral; it is to be drunk at night’”, Deschamps says with a laugh.
And now, it is Deschamps’ turn to become a ghost of Perrier-Jouët’s past.
“If you need me, I'll come late at night so that nobody can see me coming, and you can keep your position that ‘it's me who decides. I'm the one who make the wines,’" he tells Frerson.
"The king is dead, long live the king” Deschamps says.
And long live the queen.
Copyright 2019 by Justin Jin. Full story text available on request.
Justin Jin photographs and writes long form stories for the world’s leading publications.
International prizes attest to his dedication. He was awarded the Magnum Photography Prize, a place at the World Press Photo Masterclass, Canon Prize, among others.
Speaking five languages -- English, Chinese, Russian, French and Dutch, Justin cuts through cultural barriers to the heart of diverse themes.
He is also a knowledgeable wine-taster, having been in his younger years the prize-winning captain of the Cambridge University blind tasting team.
He splits his time among Brussels, China and wherever the story takes him.