If you want to buy some bottles of champagne to celebrate the 50th anniversary of your company then there is only one place to go – the place where the whole Genus export story started – Mardeuil, near Epernay in France, the centre of the Champagne region. There is also only one person to go with on this journey – John Negus, the founder of Genus, my father. (And my Mum Jean, my wife Belinda, my sister Sarah and her husband and my business partner, Chris too – it is a family business after all!)
One week before Easter 2024 we set off in two cars, with 6 people, to maximise our champagne duty-free allowance!
Mum and Dad had their hearing aids turned to maximum and so the conversation flowed freely and intelligently, without a single “hey?”, “what?”, or “pardon?”.
Our first stop was the house where we had our first European office and warehouse – 12, Rue du Marronier, 51530 Mardeuil. This is where 25 years previously Roger Poynor first managed our French sales and then expanded our general exports. He was ably assisted by Natalie Caillez, who just so happened to be the wife of Vincent Caillez and the very source of our 50th anniversary champagne – Champagne Daniel Caillez – which was located in the next village along– Damery.
It had been over 20 years since we had last seen Vincent and Natalie, but we could not have been welcomed with more warmth and love. We even met a new member of the Caillez family – Olsi, the Genus Champagne guard dog.
After a very welcome glass of champagne, we had an amazing tour of the Caillez cellars and production facilities. Vincent even showed us how they used to remove the sediment from the bottles in the old days, before they introduced freezing to remove the top one inch of liquid of an upside-down bottle. After sampling an unbelievable bottle of vintage champagne, covered in cobwebs and dust, we headed off for an excellent meal in Epernay with, you guessed it, another bottle of champagne – Rose this time though, as we had to sample all varieties!
We took four days over the trip so that Mum and Dad could revisit all of their old haunts and we stayed in Tilques and Socx as well as Epernay. It was a brilliant trip, and it was an absolute pleasure for us to be able to take my parents back to where it all started so that they could meet up with Vincent and Nat again. The link of buying our champagne from the lady who worked for us and helped to set up our first office away from the UK was especially poignant.
Thanks to Mum and Dad for making The Microfilm Shop and subsequently Genus, happen. Thanks to all of the family and staff who made it so successful and many, many thanks to all of our wonderful suppliers and customers.
Cheers!!
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