In this ‘In Conversation With’ we meet Caroline Bianco, the Culture and Creative Director at Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouët. Caroline is a designer and artistic director by training, having graduated from ENSCI (École nationale supérieure de création industrielle). In her current position as Culture and Creative Director at Martell, the oldest of the great cognac houses, her role is to honour and preserve the brand’s rich heritage whilst continuing to innovate and create new opportunities for the brand.
Read on to learn more.
You’ve had a very diverse career working across a number of global brands, tell us about your experiences and how this has shaped your current role at Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouet.
I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to apply my passion for design to work across a range of international brands and sectors. After university, I dedicated ten years to research and development for major corporations like Renault and Airbus, shaping the way major industries integrate creativity and efficiency.
In 2017, I joined Atelier LUMA in Arles as Director, managing a multi-disciplinary team and leading diverse research and design projects over the course of 8 years. My work, which was anchored in design and the environment, involved collaborating with prestigious institutions such as INRAE and Harvard, fostering innovation at the intersection of design and sustainability.
I like to integrate design where it is not expected, ultimately being a designer is not necessarily about simply designing objects but instead about creating links between expertise and disciplines… and it is often in these interstices that interesting projects are born.
Preserving the heritage and traditions of Martell is a priority for you and your team. How do you strike the balance here when engaging a modern and contemporary audience?
At Martell, preserving our rich heritage and traditions is a core priority. However, we understand that to engage a modern, contemporary audience, we must also evolve and stay relevant in a rapidly changing world. This delicate balance is central to our approach.
Our Signature Martell par Alexandre Mazzia culinary experience is a perfect example of this. In March 2023, we announced our long-term partnership with three-star Michelin Chef, Alexandre Mazzia. Together, we have created a unique dining experience at Martell’s official residency, Château de Chanteloup, that boldly marries the worlds of cognac and gastronomy through a shared sense of audacity and savoir-faire. It is a spectacle of taste, design, flavour and elevation.
We are immensely proud of this partnership, especially given Chef Mazzia’s remarkable achievements, including being one of the top chefs selected to cook for the 15,000 athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Furthermore, his recognition as a “One to Watch” by the 2022 World’s 50 Best Restaurants adds to the prestige of this collaboration.
Through these partnerships, we hope to continue honouring our heritage, all while engaging new audiences by placing Martell on a global stage for all to enjoy.
Martell is working with Chef Alexandre Mazzia for the gastronomy experience, are there any other collaborations you can tell us about?
For Signature Martell par Alexandre Mazzia at the Château de Chanteloup, we also worked with Spanish designer Jorge Penadés to design the signature dining room due to a shared commitment to understated elegance. I love to enter into conversation with artists, but also to provoke conversation between them. They bring their vision to the brand.
Château de Chanteloup is the house of Martell, how did you maintain the beautiful heritage during the renovations whilst adding Martell’s signature mark on it to create a dynamic space?
For the Signature Martell experience, Martell fostered a deliberate interplay between the historical heritage of Chateau de Chanteloup and contemporary design elements, creating a dynamic tension between the past and present.
Simplicity was vital when it came to the design of the main dining space as we wanted the intricate details to be brought to life in the food and cognac pairings. With this in mind, Chef Alexandre was drawn to Spanish designer Jorge Penadés due to their shared alignment on simplicity. Jorge Penadés’ work with natural materials and innovative design solutions also really resonated with Martell and Alexandre Mazzia’s overarching vision for the experience.
The dining space now offers a theatrical experience with an open kitchen concept, unlike traditional restaurants. The progressive lighting design gradually reveals the space, enhancing the drama and immersion of this unique culinary journey.
Tell us more about the Signature Martell par Alexandre Mazzia experience at Château de Chanteloup.
Signature Martell par Alexandre Mazzia is a luxury gastronomic experience which celebrates the harmony between cognac and gastronomy, located at Martell’s home, Château de Chanteloup. It is a beautiful partnership between Martell’s Cellar Master, Christophe Valtaud and three-Michelin-Starred Chef, Alexandre Mazzia. They co-created a truly unique and exquisite experience with a bespoke menu designed to complement the special cognac blends elaborated by Christophe Valtaud. A first of its kind experience within the industry, we are incredibly proud to be able to offer a bespoke and memorable experience with Martell, illustrating Martell’s excellence in the Art of hospitality.
Tell us more about the Fondation d’Entreprise Martell.
We are extremely fortunate and proud to have such a creative space to open up to emerging and established creatives. The Foundation is a cultural and creative hub in the heart of Cognac, established in 2016 as a research and experimentation space for designers, artists and researchers. The centre embodies Maison Martell’s proud tradition of patronage and collaboration and our wider desire to popularise culture for a broader audience. The philosophy of Fondation d’Enterprise Martell is to connect local and international craftspeople with emerging or recognised creators and we have hosted more than 70 artists to date from Europe, China and Africa across 12 art and craft disciplines.
What are your plans for Martell for the next five years? What else can we expect to see from Martell?
I’d like to showcase my expertise and work on new consumer experiences. Making a cognac is like playing a musical score, sometimes involving more than 1,500 chords…It’s like creating a perfume from 300 years of history and nature captured in our cellars. Cognac is still known very little and I’d like to encourage people to discover it.
Sustainability is a fundamental part of your role; how will you support Martell to engage in a more sustainable future through innovation and design?
We need to maintain the luxury positioning of the house and our products while taking a responsible, sustainable approach to our manufacturing methods and the experience we offer.
We must focus exclusively on quality. The most fundamental innovations we are making today are environmentally conscious. Our role has not changed fundamentally but we have to adapt it to the new challenges.
What are the most exciting trends you anticipate for the design and luxury space over the next five years?
I have to admit that I’m not really looking at trends at this moment in time, instead I just try to be coherent with the values of Martell and the complex economic and political environment in which we live.
Being timeless is sometimes the opposite of being trendy…
Some of our cognacs will be tasted in 20 or 30 years, therefore I would be incapable of predicting the trends of my consumers. So I prefer Martell to be in ink and to reflect what it has always been: the oldest cognac house whose know-how and quality are unalterable.
Luxury is highly subjective, what does it mean to you personally?
For me, luxury is all about the high standards applied to every detail, whether in terms of know-how or values. A luxury brand is a brand of culture…
What is your life motto?
Dreaming needs to be a daily practice.
