Dry Extract Interview: Vitalie Taittinger of Champagne Taittinger, France

Vitalie Taittinger is president of Taittinger, one of the few remaining family-run Champagne houses in France. Born in Reims in 1979, she graduated from the Emile Cohl School of Art in Lyon, where she studied applied art techniques for illustration and graphic design. She joined the family business in 2007 and was appointed head of communications and marketing in 2015. Her father, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, handed over the reins to Vitalie in 2020 when she became president of the company aged 40.

The best advice I ever got

Decide with your heart.

My life motto

Never give up.

I am currently reading

La fêlure and other novels by Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

My most played music track

Probably something by Ben Harper.

If I didn’t do my current job I would be

I would like to take the time to paint.

Skill I don’t currently possess but would like to have 

So many! I would like to have all the skills….but the game is to have only certain ones and do your best with them!

My favourite kind of exercise

When you come up against a problem that blocks the way, put it on the table and find the right strategy to tackle it. When you overcome the fear of the problem, you see things totally differently.

I relax while

I am in the countryside with my husband and four children.

I collect

Paintings.

My essential newspaper/magazine

Artension magazine.

My desert-island wine

That is too hard to choose….!

I have learnt a lot from

Failures. It's classic but true.

My last meal and sip will be

I certainly don’t know, but if I could choose it would be a head of veal with sauce gribiche and potatoes, together with a Sancerre Rouge from Vincent Pinard, Charlouise. After that, I'd sleep well and only have good dreams!