After more than 20 years at Champagne Pol Roger, president Laurent d’Harcourt is set to retire at the end of 2026, and db has learnt today of his successor: Ayala MD Hadrien Mouflard.
Since October 2012, Mouflard (pictured below) has headed up Champagne Ayala – which was bought by Groupe Bollinger in 2005 – and before that, he worked at Champagne Bollinger as general secretary.
He completed an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) in Leadership and General Administration at INSEAD in 2018 before taking up a role at Unilog Management and then Groupe Roullier.
From there he joined Bollinger, where he worked for four years before the family-owned business appointed him to lead Ayala, making Mouflard – who was in his early 30s at that time – the youngest MD of a Champagne maison.
He is due to join Champagne Pol Roger in the autumn this year, just as the harvest begins in Champagne, allowing for a three-month handover period from d’Harcourt, who will retire at the end of the year.
A golden period
D’Harcourt, who was born in 1963, has overseen a golden period at Champagne Pol Roger, despite steering the business through difficult times, notably the sudden decline in demand in fine fizz during the pandemic.
Under his watch, the house has not only grown in size and awareness, but also renewed its offices in Epernay, as well as benefitted from a vast, state of the art production facility.
As you can read more about here, in 2024 the maison opened an impressive new structure for bottling and storage following a £50 million investment – unveiled in the same year Pol Roger celebrated its 175th anniversary.
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D’Harcourt was also in charge when Champagne Pol Roger embarked on the difficult task of unearthing buried bottles from the 1890s, which had been trapped beneath soil and rubble after the producer’s cellars collapsed in 1900.
A big vintage
He will still be president of the house when, latter this month, Pol Roger unveils its latest single harvest expression, which will hail from 2019 – previously described by d’Harcourt as a “big vintage”, such was the quality of the year.
D’Harcourt joined the house as export director in 2006 after almost 10 years working for Champagne Bruno Paillard. He was promoted to the role of president at Pol Roger in 2013.
Champagne Pol Roger remains completely independent and family-owned, overseen by the descendants of founder Pol Roger, but with external management from within the Champagne region.
The house is especially famous for its strong, historic connection with British statesman Sir Winston Churchill, with Champagne Pol Roger’s prestige cuvée named in honour of him, created 10 years after his death in 1965, using grapes from the ’75 harvest. Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill was released at the former UK Prime Minister’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace, in 1984 in magnums only.
Before d’Harcourt took over the role of president, the house was headed by the late Patrice Noyelle, who retired in 2013, and sadly died last year.
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