From year to year, we pursue a constant improvement strategy for the quality of our wines, and we’ve made big investments toward this. On the one hand, we are trying to gain market share in this “quality” segment. On the other, a structure like ours must also operate in markets with lower average prices, where the price really matters, and we are also competing at this level.
What are your main objectives for the coming quarter, six months and year?
At the commercial level, the main objective is to emerge from this crisis with our wines enjoying a stronger positioning. We have put a lot of effort into the quality of our products, branding and communication. For example, we launched a communication campaign in German-speaking Switzerland for our Baccarat. All this now needs to bear fruit. At the company level, having lain low and tried to reduce our costs as much as possible during the crisis, we are now entering a phase where we can envisage new developments, innovation, new fields of activity – and this is extremely motivating.
What are your customers’ expectations in terms of sustainable development?
Today’s consumer expects to find on the market a wine that is produced in the most sustainable way possible. For their part, winegrowers also want to move toward more sustainable production. It’s important to remember that when we plant vines, they will be there for 25 years. It is a major challenge to change the paradigm overnight. The environmental transition is the expectation of a whole generation. We owe it to ourselves to take this path and there are some interesting avenues to follow. Research is under way to develop disease-resistant grape varieties such as Divico, for example, which proved its worth during 2021, which was very humid and complicated for other grape varieties. These resistant grape varieties are one solution among others. Now it is a question of learning how to vinify them in an optimal way, and then get customers to recognize and accept the wines. We have to admit that climate change also has its upside here in Geneva as longer summers allow late grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc or Merlot to benefit from optimal ripening until the end. The result is much fuller, more structured wines with a more complex palette of aromas.