The idea is good and supportive. On request, bottles of Yann Henry (Saint-Lumier-en-Champagne) are now dressed in a Braille counter-label.
It is the story of a meeting that leads to a great idea. While visiting Yann Henry’s estate in Saint-Lumier-en-Champagne with friends, Stéphane Sabourdy, a blind Vitryat, runs his fingers over the headdress several times, especially over the raised letters. “I was very intrigued,” says Christine Marchand, who welcomes visitors and manages marketing. I quickly realized that the thickness of the letters could suggest that the inscription was in Braille. In fact, Stéphane will quickly understand that he cannot read anything and will give the obvious: “If I buy champagne and put it in my cellar that already contains it, how can I be sure of finding Yann Henry’s bubbles?” “The contact went well that day and Christine and Yann, sensitized and supporting in particular the cause of guide dogs for the blind, could only conclude a partnership. Today it took many months to finalize the order for 2000 back labels, specifying the name of the brand (Champagne Yann Henry), the city (Saint-Lumier-en-Champagne) and the type of champagne (brut, brut reserva, rosé or vintage). Important clarification from Christine: “We are not creating this background- label for increase the price of the bottle. We want to allow blind or partially sighted people to get information about the product they are buying. Christine believes in this project and has contacted all interested associations, the idea also being, in the longer term, to offer technical sheets and useful information to consumers in Braille (grape varieties, service, food and wine pairings ?). Committed to supporting the blind and visually impaired, Stéphane Sabourdy has created his company Vakeo. Braille labeling is especially effective on medicines, but the idea can be applied everywhere, on wines and other products, foodstuffs or not. disability is not trivial, in France alone there are more than 207,000 blind people (10% read braille) and 3 million visually impaired people who need adapted equipment to read.
Keep selling bottles
In addition to these back labels, things still move within the Yann Henry brand, created in 1996, as new packaging adorns the bottles. There is the double agricultural and wine-growing facet of the family, with a flax flower colored cap and a slightly fibrous surface reminiscent of hemp. Because Yann, in addition to managing three hectares of vineyards in Saint-Lumier, Merlaut and Vavray-le-Grand, grows these two fiber plants. On the tourist route and labeled Vignobles et Découvertes, the Yann Henry champagne welcomes more and more people. English and Belgian especially. The brand sells 9 to 10,000 bottles a year, bottles recovered from the Verzenay wine cooperative, which therefore blends Pinots Noir and Meunier with Chardonnay du Vitryat. This guarantees vintages of power, vinous and freshness. If the bottles are removed after extraction, the rest of the operations until labeling are carried out at Saint-Lumier. “We are eager to keep selling bottles”, Christine reminds us, “but also to develop wine tasting. Of course, I had to learn English!” This dynamic can be found in the APCCV, Association for the promotion of champagne and slopes of vineyards, to which the estate belongs. The other peculiarity of the couple is to offer wines that have matured for a long time in lamas: up to six years for brut mounts, up to fifteen years for vintages. is currently for sale, 2004 will soon take over and lovers of large bottles will savor the 1997 magnum.