Laurent Delaunay is the president of Badet Clément in Nuits-Saint-Georges, Burgundy, France and also the current president of the BIVB, the Burgundy Wine Board. With his wife Catherine, also an oenologist, he founded Badet Clément in 1995 and they now own vineyards in Languedoc, Rhône Valley and Burgundy – where in 2017 he managed to re-acquire his family business Edouard Delaunay, founded in 1893. He is a thoughtful commentator on wine and life.
The best advice I ever got
When I was about 14 or 15 years old, I was always paying a lot of attention to what people thought of me. One of my great uncles, at the time about 85 years old, an old officer from the First World War, always well dressed, with a fantastic personality, loved to play chess. He played chess with me and taught me. He told me that one in two people you will meet are going to think that you are dumb, so follow your own path and don’t pay attention to what people think about you.
My life motto
Very simple: I try to do my best; I am somebody who has a high sense of duty and I was raised in a family where sense of duty was important. I think you have to try and do your best with what is given to you.
My most played music track
Schubert, Baroque religious music, or Mozart’s Mass in C minor.
If I didn’t do my current job I would be
My dream when I was younger was to become a pilot and I know that I could do it as a hobby, but I have never had the time, and I still dream that I will do it one day. I am fascinated by aviation.
Skill I don’t currently possess but would like to have
I would like to be more at ease when I speak in public.
My favourite kind of exercise
Walking in the country and the vineyards and forests, in the Hautes Côtes de Bourgogne. and I love to take my dog and go, and I also love to work in my garden.
I relax while
Gardening, listening to music, reading, spending time with my family and friends, sharing wine.
I collect
When I was a kid, I started a lot of collections but quickly changed from one to another. But the last one I started is of Ex Libris bookmarks – some of them are absolute pieces of art, especially from late 19th and 20th century, especially from Mitteleuropa [=central Europe], a lot of them were made by woodprint and really are small pieces of art.
My essential newspaper/magazine
Le Point magazine, a weekly digest, like Newsweek.
My desert-island wine
Most likely something refreshing, so Chablis, Grand Calcaire, made from a selection of vineyards none of which are south-facing to get as much freshness and minerality as possible.
I have learnt a lot from
So many people; I was very blessed in my career, I have learned a lot but since I was a child, I always liked to spend time with older and experienced people, like André Tchelistcheff in California, I worked there for a year as an assistant winemaker in 1985 and he was consulting at the winery I was working at. He used to know my grandfather, and so we became friends. It was fascinating to speak to him, not only because of his skills and experience but more because of his unbelievable life.
Then there were some other figures in Bourgogne, I learned a lot in terms of entrepreneurship and business from Jean Claude Boisset, one of the smartest wine entrepreneurs I have met. I learned a lot from Aubert de Villaine, what I like is not only his wine philosophy but his life philosophy, what I appreciate about him is that he is not only one of the most emblematic producers of Burgundy but he has a vision, his thinking is across several generations, and he is very sensitive of the fact that in a traditional region like Burgundy, we do not inherit, we just pass the land on. This gives you a vision and a perspective across centuries. You have to think and consider the consequences in the long term. Now we work together to restore some old monuments, like the Abbaye de Saint Vivant. In the 12th century they developed all the great vineyards of Vosne Romanée and Flagey-Échezeaux: within 400 years, they created la Romanée Conti, Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Clos Vougeot.
My last meal and sip will be
My favourite meal when I was younger that my mother cooked on my birthday: crab mayonnaise as a starter, roast beef with mashed potatoes and apricot tart for dessert, so simple. With a Chardonnay from Bourgogne – maybe a from Puligny premier cru Les Referts 2018, then Gevrey-Chambertin premier cru Les Combottes 2013.
