Pernod Ricard is using sailing ships to ship its cognac and Champagne brands Martell, Mumm, and Perrier-Jouët to the USA. On August 9, the cargo sailing ship 'Anemos' set sail on its maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York. Its cargo includes 900 pallets of premium sparkling wine and brandy. As Sonia Le Masne, the Director of Sustainability at Martell, Mumm, and Perrier-Jouët, explained at the Change Now trade fair in Paris in June, this new freight alternative is part of the company's decarbonization strategy. This method of crossing the Atlantic actually reduces CO₂ emissions by 90% compared to a conventional cargo ship. The route is now set to be operated monthly, and the volume will gradually increase as the fleet expands. Some barrels of Martell cognac will even spend a year crossing the Atlantic, a nod to old cognac trading traditions.
Custom-Made
The cargo sailing ship 'Anemos is a new design by the French company TOWT (TransOceanic Wind Transport) and is equipped with seven cargo holds and a freight capacity of 1,000 tons. To assist the vessel to reach its speed of up to 16 knots, the cargo is loaded on pallets instead of in containers. One of the cargo holds is designed without right angles and is optimized for the transportation of barrels, with ventilation and humidity levels resembling those of a wine cellar. The online platform 'Yacht' reports that the freight rate is about 400€ per US pallet, which, with 672 bottles per pallet, amounts to around 0.60€ per bottle - a high cost for any but more premium brands. Even so, Pernod Ricard is not the only client; bottles from smaller wineries like the Demeter-certified Château La Coste are also on board. For the return journey to Europe, coffee is to be loaded in Colombia.
The ship itself is made from the latest materials and equipped with the newest technologies. Guillaume Le Grand, co-founder and CEO of TOWT, said that while the voyage to New York takes a bit longer than conventional shipping practices, the journey is "free of transshipment and avoids the port congestion that container ships face daily," ultimately saving a lot of time. SP
