This was told by Daria Domostroeva, the director for public relations of the GK "Abrau-Durso", which includes Chateau d'Avize (see the cut). Of the 10,613 bottles of organic champagne extra-brut, produced from its own chardonnay category Grand Cree, only 1,000 will go on sale in Russia, specified Domostroeva.

The Titov family acquired Chateau d'Avize in 2010. The transaction value was not disclosed. On average, a hectare of vineyards in Champagne costs from 1.2 million euros, a representative of BNP Paribas told the French portal The Good Life. Since the purchase of French champagne, the Titovs have invested about 3 million euros in its development. Now the chateau has 2,08 hectares of fully restored vineyards, which allows producing no more than 18,000-20,000 bottles of champagne according to local legislation.

Champagne under the brand name Chateau d'Avize category is super premium, so it will be sold at a price of several hundred euros per bottle, she added.

 The presentation of the millesim will take place in the coming months in France, continues the representative of Abrau-Durso, buyers from Japan, South Korea and Switzerland have already shown interest in it. A buyer from Japan wants to buy out the whole volume, but the champagne house is not ready to sell everything in one hand, since there are private customers from other countries, Domostroeva said. Specific names she did not name.

According to Domostroeva, the Russian party will be represented exclusively in the brand chain of champagne stores of the Abrau-Durso house in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Krasnodar, Tyumen, Nizhny Novgorod.

The French project of the Abrau-Durso group can hardly be called a commercial one: it is not a niche market and does not have an elastic demand, says Alexander Stavtsev, the editor-in-chief of the Russian Wine Guide, rather, he aims to increase the image and expertise of the Russian wine house.

Chateau d'Avize is already recognized as organic (for example, using only organic fertilizers), now the second stage of certification is passing through the chateau - the right to call the biodynamic champagne produced here (care of the vineyards for the phases of the moon, the maximum of manual operations, etc.), Domostroeva said. In general, biodynamic organic wine can be considered one of the ecological trends, says Stavtsev, and in Russia the fashion for it only grows, so this European labeling can attract a wealthy part of the Russian audience. On average, biodynamic wines cost about 50% more expensive than wines of similar regions and categories, Stavtsev points out.

Russian Champagne

The family of Boris Titov became the owner of the sparkling wine factory Abrau-Durso in 2006, the plant did not get them in the best condition because of the difficulties with privatization. To consolidate 100% of the shares of Abrau-Durso, Titov's structures spent about 1 billion rubles, and investments amounted to 3.6 billion rubles, wrote Forbes in 2014, citing sources close to the group. Today, the Abrau-Durso Group includes 680 hectares of own vineyards, a trading house, a chain of shops "Atelier of Abrau-Durso wine", producer of quiet wines "Manor Divnomorskoe" and others. Consolidated revenue by the basis of the company group Abrau-Durso under IFRS in 2016 amounted to 6.9 billion rubles. (+ 14% yoy), net profit - 506 million rubles. (+ 300%), sales in physical terms, according to their own data, exceeded 29 million bottles of sparkling and quiet wine.