The Group’s brands seek to cooperate with local players in good faith, and to disseminate their environmental policy with respect to preserving the terroirs. They adapt their cultivation methods to each region, thus respecting the unique characteristics of local areas, practices and populations.
Working with all local players to protect the distinctive characteristics of the terroirs
In Scotland, Bruichladdich Distillery’s teams are trained in the brand’s CSR approach via online training modules. A sustainable agriculture seminar was held in September 2019 in Scotland to allow the teams to chat with experts about different farming methods and to adapt their farming practices to preserve the terroirs and mobilise the island’s farmers. The sustainable agriculture seminar will be held every two years.
In Cognac, since 2014, the House of Rémy Martin is the only one providing sustainable agriculture training to its partners in the Alliance Fine Champagne cooperative and to all the region’s farmers, with the support of the BNIC and the Chambers of Agriculture. This personalised, tailored support enables the House’s 800 winegrower partners to review their practices and adapt them with a view to obtaining HVE environmental certification, as decided by the brand.
The brands’ commitment is also expressed through their contributions to larger organisations. Barbados, for example, has been a member of Bonsucro since early 2021; this organisation aims to promote the sustainable production, processing and trade of sugarcane worldwide. Bonsucro comprises more than 250 members, who are involved at all stages of the sugarcane supply chain: farmers, millers, merchants, buyers, support organisations, and more.
Domaine des Hautes Glaces: bringing terroir and community together through peasant agriculture
In terms of exceptional supply chains, Domaine des Hautes Glaces is a true pioneer. Nestled in the heart of the French Alps, in the Trièves Mountains, the farm distillery is the result of a local development project where farmers are true partners committed to developing new crops of organic barley, rye, spelt, oats and triticale. All of them already use organic grains and raw materials sourced locally to revive centuries-old expertise and create organic whiskies made from local resources only. This singular, united vision of Domaine des Hautes Glaces – which questions the very concept of terroir – has enabled the dissemination of new farming methods and the development of a sustainable rural production line to convert neighbouring farms to organic agriculture.
"In founding the estate, the idea was to bring raw material back to the heart of the product and, finally, to question the concept of terroir in the same way as we do with wine; to draw a correlation between the raw material, the place where it grows, and the end quality of the product. This is what makes it a terroir whisky, since everything is done from start to finish, from growing the grains to the blending process, in a very specific region: a mountain plateau in the heart of the Alps."
Frédéric Revol, agricultural engineer,
Chief Executive Officer of Domaine des Hautes Glaces
