Portrait. “I was alone, young, a woman, from Champagne…”: Mathilde Boulachin from Hérault, the effervescent queen of alcohol-free drinks

Mathilde Boulachin, 45, created the Chavin estates in 2010 and turned to alcohol-free wine. MIDI LIBRE – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

The Champagne-born Mathilde Boulachin, based in Hérault, has made a name for herself with the Pierre Chavin brand, which has specialized in sparkling and non-sparkling wines, but especially alcohol-free wines, for almost 15 years.

Mathilde Boulachin now prepares for appearances on radio morning shows or live broadcasts for news channels at the beginning of each year: “I am in high demand during dry January”, smiles the Hérault business leader, the new queen of alcohol-free wines.

She nevertheless assures us that she appreciates good wines and of course champagne: “I like bubbles, effervescence, it's life, it's a whirlwind!”, she says, her gaze inevitably sparkling, in her vast, uncluttered office on the outskirts of Béziers.
How could it be otherwise for the founder of the Pierre Chavin brand, specializing in wines with or without bubbles, with a now majority proportion of alcohol-free wines, and originating from… Champagne.

The company is present in 65 countries and produces 2.5 million bottles

His company continues to gain market share as this international trend of sobriety strengthens. At the end of 2024, Pierre Chavin had a turnover of €15.5 million, with 20 employees and a presence in 65 countries for 2.5 million bottles produced.

“We are growing and we are attacking the American market in which we have a lot of hope”, announces Mathilde Boulachin, so proud, for example, to be on the menu of the triple-starred Aude winery Gilles Goujon with his Pinot Noir “Zéro” or on Qatar Airways planes.

She developed this wine culture as a family in the Champagne region of Pouilleuse, where these images of late summer, for the manual harvests, come back to her mind, “a great celebration family with a host of people who come bursting in” for the one whose life was punctuated by the vegetative cycle of the vine.

But unlike her two sisters who remained loyal to the land, Mathilde Boulachin had itchy feet, a desire to conquer the world – as a teenager, babysitting financed her English lessons – guided by the desire to be an entrepreneur.

“She built herself”

“Mathilde is someone who moves forward and doesn't go back and she built herself”, says Lorris Cazals, her sales manager.

Her international business studies took her to Tennessee for a year, Alicante for six months and another half-year at a Swedish university. A crush on Scandinavia, which sees her potential: she is hired as a business developer in a large specialized company, then marketing and communications manager.

“Sweden knows how to give responsibilities to young people and women”, tackles the one who does not forget to organize wine and champagne tastings for customers, her passion.

Determined to take her destiny in hand, she leaves for Dijon to train in oenology to acquire technique –“I was incredibly thirsty” – before being immediately hired in Stockholm, brain manager of Taittinger, then to settle in Hérault after having created her marketing consulting company for wine. There was only one step left to take and she changed direction in 2010 by creating her brand.

“The risk of failure is zero when you start from “0”

“I said to myself: “Try it!” The risk of failure is zero when you start from “0”, I had €5,000 in my pocket”, she likes to remind us, like an ode to business creation. Returning to one's lands ? Impossible.

“Champagne remains one of the finest schools of wine marketing, but it is a very traditional region, it was impossible for me to set up there to make alcohol-free wine”, analyzes, lucidly, the one who has set her sights on Occitanie, “entrepreneurial Eldorado.”

Her weapon ? Marketing. Everywhere present. The name Pierre Chavin ? It evokes luxury – Chanel – wine and stone, a reference to the terroir.

“I was alone, young, a woman, from Champagne, I invented Pierre Chavin, I had to hide behind someone” , she readily admits.

What profile, price, packaging to put in place, the business leader then wonders ?“We hit the mark, the art of difference, our slogan, is in and outside the bottle”, she smiles again, when unveiling her different ranges of alcohol-free wine to visitors.

A challenge in this wine-growing Hexagon and its French paradox that a good glass of red a day is good for your health. But the sense of History carries her.

“I tell myself that it's not going to be possible to continue with a Perrier tranche”

Here again, a bit of welcome story-telling with this observation just after having created Pierre Chavin which sells “normal” wine: “I get pregnant and with abstinence, between pregnancy and breastfeeding, then number 2 which arrives very quickly, I tell myself that it's not going to be possible to continue with a Perrier tranche!”, laughs this mother of two teenage girls who drives a black Porsche.

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De-alcoholization, which was only a niche in 2011, has multiplied since then with a combination of new profiles. Religious – Muslims but not only – ethnic – the Asian population is subject to an intolerance to ethanol –, societal – the “social media” generation shows itself with a glass of wine but wants to keep control of its posture – sporty, safe (countries with zero tolerance for drink driving) or even health, especially for the oldest…

“With 50 to 70% fewer calories”, boasts the boss. Who does not attract only friends, she knows it and defends herself tooth and nail.

“We do not seek the market share of wine”

“Sometimes we are told: “We already have enough problems in our vineyards and you are forcing us to go a month without alcohol”. No, it is a social phenomenon in any case, it is a mutation. We are not looking for market share in wine. But what do you prefer, cola that is oversaturated with sucrose or dealcoholized wine that respects our age-old traditions?”

So, she plows her furrow and leads her team to the top, after having taken “doors, but you try 3,000 times before you know how to walk”, philosophizes the one who is also a French foreign trade advisor.

Her sales director still praises his “audacity” and his “unique” side in this world of wine which remains very masculine.

He tells how in China, some people don't talk to him because he's a woman and this anecdote, in Germany, at a giant wine fair where the same producer who had made fun of them – “this isn't the fruit juice fair!” – came the following year, flat out, to ask them how to dealcoholize. At Pierre Chavin's, next to the oenologists' office, the trophies for economic performance and other business leader awards are lined up.

“She is determined, caring and she remains completely human, despite all this businesswoman side”, summarizes one of her employees point-blank.

“She has an octopus side, she boosts you, on Friday we are happy to end the week”

“She is a melting pot of cultures and positivism that sweeps everything in its path”, summarizes Sophie Oriol, marketing project manager, citing the company's express move, less than a year ago, to brand new premises, where for another company, “it would have taken months! She has an octopus side, she boosts you, but on Fridays we are happy to end the week!”

In the laboratory where the new wines are tested collectively, Mathilde Boulachin sets her new international objectives, she who, keen on half-marathons (she ran with the Olympic flame) and reading – at the moment, “Les paradis perdus” the latest novel by E.M. Schmitt – travels a lot for his business.

“We sell non-alcoholic wine in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, for my daughters, my legacy will be this international adventure”, she says.

“I am not a romantic and very pragmatic”

“I have no ego, I hope to remain this eternal student with this freshness about life and the world, it allows you to innovate”, she insists.

While warning: “Be careful, I'm not a romantic and very pragmatic”, but no one doubted it. With this goal in mind, within ten years, we want to say everywhere: “Do you want a champagne or a Chavin without alcohol?”, as a big nod to his roots.

His challenges: new ranges, perfecting the taste, continuing to evangelize…

If 93% of the bottles sold by Pierre Chavin are exported, France – where dry january  "is rising sharply this year" – is in the Top 5 where its sparkling and alcohol-free wines are consumed. Mathilde Boulachin intends to develop the American market in 2025 but also "do better in Germany and England. This year we're going to travel the world as we know how." 

The business leader will also continue to launch new ranges, in addition to the seven current ones that include nuances, such as the recent "Zéro" in Pinot noir, the Spritz from last summer, and the new sparkling blanc de blanc that's coming.

Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Cabernet… Pierre Chavin's recipe is to select grape varieties, to make the art of blending" by looking for "the best where it there is the best."

Everything is outsourced, wine purchases, like bottling are“multi-sites in France” or even dealcoholization (in the Bordeaux region) which is done by vacuum distillation at low temperature, 40° with the challenge of removing the ethanol and “not burning the aromas.” 

Mathilde Boulachin's idea is always to perfect the taste, counting on new technologies, but also her oenologists and all the research carried out in Béziers.

“We continue the evangelization, the pedagogy to explain the alcohol-free, that it has nothing to do with grape juice for example" insists Mathilde Boulachin who hears well maintain “its double-digit growth everywhere in the countries.” What she likes is the corporate culture and economic development.“It's a source of pride to have already created 20 jobs” she says.

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