Ludovic du Plessis: ‘I Hope King Charles Will Try Telmont Champagne’

Lots of champagne brands are taking steps in the right direction when it comes to sustainability. But few are leading the charge as well as Telmont: the house energetically leading the industry’s green revolution. At the helm is Parisian-born president Ludovic du Plessis, who spent a decade working at Dom Pérignon, plus seven years at cognac brand Louis XIII, before discovering Telmont, a family-owned champagne house in Damery, near Épernay, which was on a mission to become organic. 

Joining forces with his good friend Leonardo DiCaprio, a passionate environmentalist, Ludovic set out to supercharge Telmont’s ecological goals through an ambitious project, In Nomine Terrae (in the Name of Mother Nature). Since then the business has spearheaded a string of key initiatives, from removing gift boxes to switching to recyclable green bottles – and the ultimate goal is to be Climate Positive by 2030 and Net Positive by 2050.

It’s an impressive story, and one that earned Telmont the title of Best Sustainable Culture, Travel & Lifestyle Brand in our inaugural Future Icons awards. Ludovic was also a panellist at our Journey To Zero 2024 party, where he chatted to Tiffanie Darke about ‘closing the climate gap’. Here, he speaks in more detail about Telmont’s mission to C&TH’s Ellie Smith.

Interview with Ludovic du Plessis, President of Champagne Telmont

Congratulations on your Future Icons award. How did it feel to win?

We’re very proud! It’s really good to be nominated for this award, especially when you see the list, and see you have a personality like the King of England on the list. I hope he will try Telmont champagne one day soon, and that he will love it because he’s passionate about organic farming. Let’s send an invitation King Charles: I’d be more than happy to organise a drink and he can taste the champagne. Maybe we’ll ask Leonardo DiCaprio to come!

Ludovic at C&TH’s Journey To Zero party, James Mason Photography

How did you first get into the champagne world?

I was working for a cigar company – Cuban cigars, cigars from Honduras and cigars from the Dominican Republic. I’m telling you that because one day I decided to organise an amazing tasting for my top clients: cigars and champagne. My grandfather told me Dom Pérignon was the best one, so I called the house and said: can you please give me six bottles for free for my tasting? They said: we love the idea of pairing cigars and champagne, and Richard Geoffroy – the winemaker of Dom Pérignon for 20 years, the pope of champagne – will come. 

I fell in love with his charisma, his way of talking about champagne. And I told him: I’m going to quit, I’m going to work for you. Long story short, three months after I was at Dom Pérignon. For 10 years, Richard was my mentor. 

I was based in New York, and the group Remy Cointreau asked me if I wanted to run this cognac house. So I came back to France, and I did that for seven years. I had a blast, and four years ago, I told myself what I wanted to do with my life. I said: I love champagne, I would love to be my own entrepreneur, and I would love to do a business with purpose. On the weekends I was going on my bicycle to try and find a champagne house to buy. It needed to check four boxes: an amazing history, a family business, amazing wines, and one that was starting the conversion into organic agriculture. Telmont was checking all four boxes, so I said: let’s do it.

What is your overarching goal?

The mission is to craft the best of champagne with no compromise when it comes to sustainability. We believe the wine is really good, the top critics of the world believe the wine is really good. What does it mean to be sustainable in champagne? It doesn’t just mean to be carbon neutral. The project, which we named ‘in the Name of Mother Nature’, is about biodiversity, which means regenerative agriculture, cover crops and planting trees. We can see today everybody is moving to that direction in Champagne – and don’t get me wrong, I applaud it. What we say at Telmont is that this is great, but this is not the final stop. You need to go the extra mile, which is moving to organic, because how can you be regenerative if you are still using chemical fertilizers? It has to be both, and it’s possible.

Second: our target is net zero – and how do you get to net zero? It’s the million dollar question. First we removed all the gift boxes. Why? Because if you remove the gift box, you remove eight percent of the carbon footprint of each bottle produced. The best packaging is no packaging.  We make champagne, we don’t make gift boxes. You don’t need them. Then, we moved to the classic bottle shape. Number three, we said stop the transparent bottle, the green bottle is 87 percent recycled glass. 

What three things are you most proud of?

First, it’s very important to say that it’s a team project. We are 16 – eight women, eight men –  and I’m very proud that the team is so happy to work at Telmont. Then I would say I’m very proud of the fact that I can feel that mentality is changing, that more and more and more people are embracing this movement. At Telmont, but also in other industries. And I’m also proud that the wine is so good, that’s important. We can feel the benefits of the organic grapes in the wine itself. We really believe that this is the future of champagne. Our ultimate goal is to move to 100 percent organic. We are 70 percent and we want to go to 100 percent. 

How did you and Leonardo DiCaprio meet?

I met him a long time ago. A person that I knew at a bar was going to his house in LA and I ended up there. We became friends – you don’t explain friendship. It happens organically, like the grapes. He’s the one who really put the seed of sustainability in my mind, by telling me: Ludo, you should watch this documentary. Then I decided to make it my own life project. But I can tell you that he is really determined when it comes to fighting climate change. He really inspires me. 

What’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s involvement in Telmont?

I asked Leonardo DiCaprio to join us two years ago as the number four when it comes to partner investors – not an ambassador, an investor, which is a big difference. He’s not a champagne celebrity. No, we have Leonardo as an investor. And why Leonardo? I met him 20 years ago, but he didn’t invest because we are friends, not at all. It doesn’t work like that. He decided to follow us and to invest because he understood that our project was real and that we could make a difference. We can have all the other champagne houses follow and to embrace what we’re doing, which is moving 100 percent to organic agriculture, reducing the carbon footprint of the company not to be carbon neutral, but go net zero. Leo understood all that, and said: I’m going to invest and all together, let’s spread the word.

What does sustainability mean to you?

For me, sustainability is a way of life, it’s a philosophy of life: respecting nature, because we all live on the same planet. It’s a common sense decision to protect the planet as much as we can. It sounds super simple when you say it like that. It’s a job for everybody. We are all citizens of the planet. We all have a role to play, and it’s very important not to point fingers, but to have everybody embrace the cause. We are very climate optimistic at Telmont. 

What makes you feel positive?

The fact that I really feel today that people are starting to talk about it. It’s a really big conversation with the new generation, they are becoming more aware of the situation and what the certifications mean. This gives us a lot of courage and hope.

Where’s your favourite place to drink champagne?

I would say it’s when I drink champagne with oysters, when I have my two feet in the ocean on the west coast of France in a small area named Vendée. For me, they have the best oysters ever.

How do you live a balanced lifestyle? 

I’m a father of three kids, so for me, it’s about balancing working and spending time with my family. And sports are really important also – I love tennis, I love marathons, I love football, I love surfing. When you are good in your health and your body, you can create great things.

Find out more at uk.champagne-telmont.com