News

Guillaume Deglise to head up Henriot and TEVC’s global development

18 January 2024 By Arabella Mileham

Former Vinexpo chief and DBR Lafite director Guillaume Deglise has been appointed to a dual role at Champagne Henriot and the Terroirs et Vignerons de Champagne (TEVC).

The move will see Deglise become the managing director of Henriot at the same time as being the group head of global development for TEVC, Champagne’s largest cooperative group.

marks a return to Champagne for the well-known wine executive, who spent time working at both Bollinger and Laurent-Perrier in Champagne before his five-year stint as Vinexpo’s CEO and fair organiser.

db understands his new role at TECV, which owns Nicolas Feuillate, is two-fold: in addition to his role as managing director of Champagne Henriot, working with the existing executive committee, he will head up business development across the entire TEVC portfolio, with responsibility for developing the international exports of all of its brands.

The brands include Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, which has traditionally been very strong in the domestic market with international sales of around 43%, Champagne Castelnau and two Reims-based negociant houses, Champagne Abelé 1757 (which it acquired from the Freixenet Group in 2019) and Champagne Henriot.

Herriot was sold to TEVC in September 2023 from Artémis Domaines, only a year after the Pinault family acquired it through its merger with Maisons & Domaines Henriot. The deal was announced in March last year, and was designed to complement the broad international success of Champagne Nicolas Feuillatt, allowing TEVC to align Henriot’s négociant business with the top fruit from its major regional cooperatives, Wine Spectator reported at the time.

Christophe Juarez, CEO of Terroirs & Vignerons de Champagne (TEVC), said the appointment marked a new phase in the group’s commercial development and would consolidate the global activity of its brand portfolio.

He said: “Business development is a key strategic focus, and optimising the growth of each of our Champagne Houses among importers in five continents is vital to our company.

“To meet international targets and achieve 50% of turnover outside France, we need to consider every possible strategic and operational approach.”

He added the “autonomy of the Reims-based Champagne House” Henriot was “key to its successful expansion”.

Deglise has extensive experience in the wine trade, having started his career as the export manager for Bollinger, before moving to Laurent-Perrier, as director of the fast-growing Asia-Pacific sector and then heading up the company’s Swiss business. He was appointed CEO of Vinexpo, the international wine and spirits fair in 2013, where he remained for five years, establishing shows in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and New York.

After leaving Vinexpo in 2018, Deglise became the CEO of Burgundy producer Domaines Albert Bichot, before joining Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) in July 2020 as international director. Here, he was responsible for the commercial scope of the group’s estates wines, managing a significant network of importers that spanned more than 100 countries across three continents. He led the commercial approach of estates including Viña Los Vascos from Chile, Bodegas CARO (a joint venture between the Rothschild and Catena families), Domaines d’Aussières in Languedoc, Long Dai in the Shandong province in China, and the branded wine business (Légendes R Bordeaux) which has been successful in China.

The leading Champagne cooperative was established in 1972, and now comprises 82 cooperatives representing 6,000 growers across 2,750 hectares of Champagne. Best-known as the group behind the Nicolas Feuillatte label, in 2021, it merged with Champagne Castelnau’s owner, Cooperative Régionale des Vins de Champagne, to become TEVC.

Why it’s an organic and fine wine focus for Henriot

Terroirs Vignerons de Champagne finalises acquisition of Henriot Champagne

Domaine Chanson releases first vintage of Château d’Etroyes

Capensis flies the flag for ‘world-class’ South African Chardonnay