Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The new Joseph wine center of Maison Krug in Ambonnay, France. Nestled in the wine-growing village of Ambonnay in Marne, France, lies the new site of Krug’s production, Project Joseph designed by the award-winning AW2 agency. On one side lies the historic plot of Clos d’Ambonnay and its 0.
84 hectares. On the other, the village with its tiled roofs and inhabitants. Formed in the shape of an H, the 9,500 m2 building spans three floors, joining together its offices, reception, design and tasting areas.
From there, it branches out into five vinification rooms in the basement and the two naves, where eight cellars are located. For Krug, it was essential for its new site to optimize flows, limit the arduousness of its work and provide the teams with harmonized and functional spaces. “The desire was to continue the dream of founder Joseph Krug and to create a link between the village and the vineyard,” Stéphanie Ledoux, associate architect and co-founder of the AW2 AW2 agency, told me at the recent inauguration.
The result is one that combines excellence, modernism, and tradition. A perpetual dialogue with architectural stakes Stéphanie Réda, right, and Réda Amalou are co-founders of the AW2 agency. Much like the number of years necessary for the birth of a Grande Cuvée Krug, it took seven years of work for the new winemaking site to come to fruition.
The project also complements “Maison de Famille Krug,” located in Reims which AW2 agency delivered in 2017, adding another site Krug’s more experience-led sites where it entertains and impresses its customers. “We wanted to bring together all the oenology activities in the same place. The choice of Clos d’Ambonnay quickly made sense, both for the historical aspect of the place and for its land potential,” said Krug Project Manager Christophe Lopes.
“Choosing AW2 brought real coherence in the continuity of the spaces. They also had a good understanding of the house and its DNA.” The design of the building was initially structured around the process and the professions.
“We created an envelope, but not only that. We also had to create the space that would allow the process to reinvent itself by creating a perpetual dialogue with architectural stakes” A prestigious champagne anchored in the middle of its terroir Maison Krug's Grande Cuvée is part of the top three most excellent Champagnes in the world. Maison Krug, which was founded in Reims in 1843, stands out from other champagnes with its Grande Cuvée made up each year of a unique blend of reserve wines and the year's harvests.
The LVMH subsidiary belongs to the elite of champagnes, along other LVMH’s owned Maisons such as Ruinart and Dom Pérignon, and well as other independent brands like Louis Roederer, Pol Roger and Selosse. Krug is among the three only Champagne houses obtaining four stars in the RVF Guide Vert, the ultimate reference guide by Revue du Vin de France . In 2023, Krug ranked in the top ten wine producers sold by Sotheby’s for the first time .
Even if competition seems to come from all sides, most notably from foreign sparkling or non-alcoholic wines, Krug recorded strong growth in 2023, according to the LVMH Group which controls an estimated 46% of global champagne sales by value according to Edouard Aubin of Morgan Stanley. Sales in the United States, Japan and Italy largely explain this performance. Small champagne producing houses, which focus more on proximity to the terroir than on prestige or brand image, are also increasingly establishing themselves in the market, especially in France where consumers have been even more demanding in terms of quality-price ratio.
Maison Krug plays on both selling points by highlighting a prestigious champagne drawn from the diversity of Champagne and everything it can offer in terms of terroir. It’s also why the Krug Grande Cuvée entry price point fetches the $280 dollar mark. More broadly, Krug benefits from the steep appreciation of champagne as a wine in itself, not just a wine for celebration.
An exemplary step towards more sustainability Krug's new Joseph Winery in Ambonnay pushes the boundaries of wine making with sustainability in mind. It is in the vein of recent commitments made by the LVMH Group to reconcile luxury and biodiversity, that the “Joseph” winemaking site was designed. The AW2 agency focused creating a series of infrastructures that were equipped with an efficient and waterproof envelope, to guarantee the thermal inertia of the premises and low energy consumption.
Installing free cooling, heat pumps and sensors to control the humidity of the cellars, resulted in the end of the need for watering the barrels, will allow “colossal” energy savings, according to Christophe Lopes. The optimization of natural light, the upgrading of local materials and the recovery of rainwater were also testament to the careful architectural calibration, which helped Maison Krug’s Joseph project obtain the “exceptional” mention in the French High Environmental Quality label. Becoming more sustainable is critical for champagne wine makers.
The four producing sub-regions are highly exposed to climate change which jeopardizes the livelihood of 16,000 wine growers and their yearly 6.3bn euros sales revenues . Experiments by leading brands like Krug are therefore essential for the rest of the region, as new practices trickle down.
Every luxury brand, including in wines and spirits, must accelerate its shift towards positive impact sustainability. At present, the majority of brands are not there; yet the stakes for planet and society keep rising. Krug’s project “Joseph” in collaboration with AW2 reminds all brands that architecture needs to play a key role in reversing negative impacts at all stages of the value chain.
For in sustainability, not unlike luxury, every detail counts. The author thanks Caroline Le Nestour for her assistance with the research. MORE FROM FORBES Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions Join The Conversation One Community.
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