Savoir Faire: The Impossible Collection of Wine

0:01Alex Assouline:Savoir Faire is a new series introduced of Season 2 of the Culture Lounge podcast. Each episode features myself, Alex Assouline, president of Assouline, in conversation with founders Martine and Prosper Assouline to talk about the art of knowing exactly what to do and when to do it. Together, we journey into Asseline's ultimate collection, special edition titles and library collection, the stories that inspired them, the artisans who brought them to life, and the vision that transforms books into objects of significance. Today, we're here to talk about the savoir-faire behind the impossible collection of wine.

0:39Alex Assouline:It's been 10 years since this incredible book came out, which led to a great series, Prosper. What was the original idea behind it? It's to give a sense of a book, which is not just a book, it's an object. It's like if I do the analogy of, if I had to do a book on the chocolate, I would have a bar of chocolate inside this book. And it's exactly what I wanted to have with the wine book. So we designed the book to be like a crate of wine, what I receive normally in my apartment. I have to put in the cellar with the same cord. So we find exactly this material. We burn the title like a castle in a crate.

1:23So this is to give the aspect of the book as an object. It's an extraordinary gift. What you are sure is linked 1 ,000 % to the wine. This is number one. Number two, inside the book, we decide to do something a little bit more crazy. is to replicate the exact label for the 100 best wines in the century, to replicate this label and to have them tip-on in the book.

1:53Alex Assouline:What do you mean by tip-on? Tip-on, it's each picture, it's glued by hand by an artisan with white gloves on each page for each book, one by one. Yes, but that gave us the idea also to add white gloves to each one of the books that we sell. Absolutely. Because it's the respect in opening something like that. What I wanted for this collection is when you open this book, you feel this book is yours. It's like a private book made by hand for you. And you have this impression of a scrapbook or a private book, but it's made for you. So Martin Choice with the author, the list of the best wine with the right text on that, etc.

2:44So really between the label who are completely extraordinary because they are made sometime in five, six, ten different level of engraving, colors, etc. plus the tactile with the wood, burn, and the cord that you can hang the book, makes this book, it was today after 10 years, our bestseller in this collection, but it's because it was a good essence, a good foundation.

3:15Alex Assouline:So you talk about finding these labels. I remember it was one of my first projects with the company when I started, and we had to contact these wineries and get their labels from like the 1920s, scan them, digitalize them, print them on cotton paper, have them glued one by one on paper, as you mentioned, tip on. I mean, that's crazy work. Yes, this makes this collection a little bit unique because it's completely made by hand. This collection is haute couture. It's not prêt -à-porter. You can have clothes, you can have the same dress in prêt -à-porter and one in couture. you understand what it is.

3:54And this book really has this sensation. When you first open the clamshell, the box, you turn the page, we see the tip on, you see the... It's completely made by hand.

4:06Alex Assouline:I even see part of the same series as the Impossible Collection of Champagne. And the hardcover is made out of cork. Yes, same thing. We wanted to create this connection between the subject and the product. And both of them are made with the same author, Enrico Bernardo. Yes. Who was the best sommelier in the world at just 27. Exactly. Martine, how did you meet him? I want to add that, yes, I like the idea to compare with haute couture. Because when you open this kind of book, you get inside the world of. It's that all the work that is done by a team is about that. You know, it's not just a book.

5:00We offer an ambience. We offer information, but in a kind of, you know, dream. And when you were talking about the labels, yes, I remember it was all the team were working on that with the printer and the people of the wineries, etc. And it was a matter of crisis. It was a crazy book, but a crisis book because it was so difficult to obtain what we wanted. So here it is. But 10 years after, it's still a bestseller. Yes, exactly. And Champagne was the same. And Enrico, we met him through France, to a restaurant I remember. Philippe Pascal. Philippe Pascal, yes, who is a great fan of us and was working for years at LVMH to see all about champagne, wines, etc.

5:57So he knows a lot and today he has a vineyard in Bourgogne, which is sensational. so we met him like for him and it was not only one of the best specialists in the world but he was also very storytelling and he was very lively when he was talking about the binary art and the owners and the way to do it etc so he was testing this 100 incredible wine yes and the text is about the memories he tried personally all of them all of them yes yes You cannot talk about it if it doesn't matter. The text is about the souvenir, what you have for each of these wines.

6:41Alex Assouline:So that's the impossible collection of wine. We did champagne. We did whiskey after that, and many more. With the same level of attention, we try each time to find what is the DNA of each of these subjects. And then to visualize this DNA. So what do you mean by DNA? DNA, it's what is the DNA exactly of the subject. Here's the wine, it's a crate. Okay, then the whiskey, it was the barrel. So we create a barrel with a piece of brass on it, a few pieces of brass on it, etc. So the universe that defines it. When we did the cigar... The presentation, start with the presentation, yes. When we did the cigar, we create a box of cigars.

7:31And after we did all of the, what is very important in the cigar is the cigar to understand it's made by 18 different persons. It's really a haute couture by himself just to create a Havana cigar. But the ring is very important. The label is very important. So we reproduce this ring with the authorization of all of the brands. and this was absolutely spectacular as work because sometimes it's 18 different colors in each label, not four colors 18 with a different debossing etc to make it extraordinary like the opus something really extraordinary so these books are really they are not books, they are really something special yes we can talk about self-affair when we say that but I must also say that in the ring some of the rings didn't exist anymore for sure we went to the people trying to see if we can find one for the cigar which is also an

8:40Alex Assouline:impossible collection exactly for you what is an impossible collection so the idea of the impossible collection was created it was 15 years ago when I saw an exhibition with Martine at the MoMA. When they were in the phase of renovation, they decided to close for four years the museum, but they still have opened two rooms, a big room, something like 10 ,000 square feet, but not more. And these 10 ,000 square feet, they put the best of the best. So in the same room, like a beautiful small museum or a big warehouse, It was mixed, the most beautiful painting of Matisse, the red painting, it was the atelier.

9:28You have two Brancusi, Brice Marden, the best Pollock. It was unbelievable. And in this room, it was something, what I say, impossible to buy. Nobody in the world can afford, with all of the money of the planet, could afford to have this collection. And we say this is impossible collection. We wanted to do an impossible collection of art, something that had nothing to do with money. Yes, with money because it was very expensive, but not only that. It was because it was in collections, very difficult to have museums, things like that, because after that, we went to fashion and other, you know, in this area, design, et cetera.

10:18And there are things that are unique and you cannot afford because it is not a question of money, but it is owned by. And it's only one. Yeah. So the definition of this collection comes from this visit at Le Bon Mar.

10:38Alex Assouline:I love that. Thank you. This one has been really one of my favorites and still one of our most collected. Thank you, Alex. Thanks. Thank you.