Why This Private LVMH Château Which Has Hosted Jay-Z & Kate Moss Is Opening To The Public

The fifth edition of LVMH’s Les Journées Particulières, takes place October 14 – 16. This year there are 57 houses and 93 venues participating in the initiative which sees 93 venues worldwide opening their doors to the public to shine a light on the savoir-faire, heritage and human hands within.

The Moët & Chandon owned Château de Saran is perhaps one of the most enigmatic of all. Set in France’s Champagne heartland, a cork pop from Épernay, in an area known as the Côte des Blancs after its predominant Chardonnay grape, it was built in 1801 as a small hunting lodge by Jean-Remy Moët, grandson of house founder Claude Moët. It was later transformed by his son Victor Moët into an infinitely grander affair.

The imposing edifice with its pitched roof and façade in an écru recalling the region’s vine-friendly chalky soil is something of a local legend. “It’s very visible and majestic,” says Moët & Chandon Chef de Caves, oenologist Benoit Gouez. “But there’s an element of mystery about it. Everyone sees the black cars arriving with the guests and wonders.”

Today, Château de Saran serves as an exclusive Moët & Chandon hospitality venue for an elite coterie of private clients, collectors, decision makers and VIPs — the latter including Kate Moss, Jay-Z, Roger Moore and even the late Queen Mother.

Moët & Chandon is the largest brand in LVMH Group’s Wine & Spirits portfolio. Half year 2022 figures saw overall profits up 25% year on year to €1154million ($1103m). Champagne volumes increased by 16% over the same period with 31.1million bottles sold. Moët & Chandon was also the official supplier of Champagne for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee celebrations in England in June.

A major facet of the Château’s haute hospitality involves intricate food and wine pairings — to which Gouez refers as “a dialogue” between the flavors of each — one bouncing off the other in the spirit of the best conversations.

These dinners take place in the Château’s vendangeoir (originally the building where grape harvests would be stored). It’s been connected to the main Château by an underground tunnel or galerie — after Moët’s famous Galerie Imperial in Épernay — so guests need not set foot outdoors should they not feel disposed.

Les Journées Particulières ticket holders will visit said vendangeoir where they will learn from Moët & Chandon executive chef Marco Fadiga how he creates the food component. Fadiga was hired four years ago in an online competition akin to international reality show Top Chef where each would be contender sent in an application involving a video and a recipe.

Visitors will also tour part of the Château itself. The interiors underwent a five year rejuvenation completed in 2019 by French architect and former film industry set designer Yves de Marseilles — also responsible for the refurbishment of Christian Dior’s former residence, Château de La Colle Noire near Grasse.

They will visit the meticulously restored salon presided over by a portrait of Odette Vyau de Baudreuil de Fontenay, wife of Comte Frédéric Chandon de Briailles and where family heirlooms rub shoulders with auction house finds such as canapé sofas which once occupied The Ritz Hotel. They will also see two of the Château’s 11 cinematic bedroom suites: The Christian Dior room and the American room on the first floor.

The latter features an early New Orleans style decor and Art Nouveau Tiffany lamps (designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Charles Lewis Tiffany who founded Tiffany & Co which LVMH acquired in January 2021) while the former is a symphony of Dior gray, that emblematic Toile de Jouy, house tropes such as the swan and the lily of the valley and a huge vintage photograph of Monsieur Dior fitting Ava Gardner for her 1957 movie Little Hut.

All the suites have been conceived to spotlight moments in the brand’s history. The American celebrates 1787, the year the American Constitution was created and Moët & Chandon arrived in the U.S.A.

As for the Dior connection, it’s rather more than a cursory nod to the LVMH Group’s portfolio. It actually predates both LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault’s acquisition of Christian Dior in 1984 and the creation of the LVMH conglomerate in 1987. Moët-Hennessy bought Dior Parfums in 1969.

When the Les Journées Particulières tickets were released online in September, the quota for most of the participating venues sold out in all of five minutes, however, some spots have been reserved for each, available on the days, on a first come first served basis. LesJourneesParticulieres.com/2022