Wine lover Stephen Cronk, 60, co-founded Provençal rosé brand Maison Mirabeau with his wife Jeany in 2009. Production began in 2011 with the 2010 vintage. The wines are sold in Waitrose and other major UK supermarkets, as well as Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
Turnover has grown from €17,500 in the first year to around €15m today. Its portfolio includes 10 still rosés, a sparkling rosé, a grape-based rosé gin and a new spritz rosé created in collaboration with Fever-Tree. The flagship wine is Mirabeau Pure, which sells for around £17. The wines are now sold in 50 countries and there are plans to expand sales in the US.
The couple, who have been working with a community of producers in Provence for 10 years, acquired Domaine Mirabeau near Saint-Tropez in 2019 and added the 20-hectare estate to their production. They currently employ 27 people.
CV
Born: November 5, 1963, South London
Education: 1977-82: Seaford College, West Sussex (A-level Economics, English and Art)
1982/83: Sabbatical year in Australia. Captivated by the vineyards and wine production in the Barossa Valley
1983-1985: University of Brighton (HND in Business Studies)
1987-89: Part-time diploma course with Wine & Spirit Education Trust
Career: 1985-88: Worked for various wine importers: warehouse assistant and delivery driver, then promoted to salesman upon passing WSET exams.
1988-94: Ran a small wholesale wine business in a former piano factory in Wandsworth.
1994-2008: 15 years in telecommunications, mainly selling bandwidth on submarine fiber optic cables
2009: Moves to Cotignac to create Maison Mirabeau
2011: Launch of the wine brand in the United Kingdom.
Lives: Cotignac, Provence (the nearest town is Aix-en-Provence), with Jeany, who heads up the creative side of the brand. Their children are Josie, 23, Felix, 22, and George, 16.
Did you start your business by accident or by design?
It was very intentional. It took me 10 years to develop a plan and convince my wife to sell our house in Teddington, a suburb of West London. We had bought an amazing house to renovate and thought we would never move again, but we were only there for four years.
We bought the house for £900,000 and spent another £200,000 on renovations. The £1.6m we got from the sale was the only investment we made. We took home about €1.25m (£1.04m). That gave us time to establish the brand and pay our living expenses. We had to self-finance, because we had no experience in winemaking, hardly spoke any French and we had certainly never created a brand before.
Was there a turning point in your business?
It was probably when I met a British Master of Wine in Languedoc in 2008. He told me about the three Vs: viticulture, winemaking and sale, vine growing, winemaking and sale. Until then, I thought I would concentrate on buying a vineyard. He told me not to buy a vineyard yet – to create a brand. Looking back, it was absolutely the right advice.
What has been the most difficult adjustment to life in France?
Public officials and special interest groups regularly strike. In 2018, yellow vests For months, citizens have been protesting against the price of oil and fuel, blocking most transport and even motorways. Social security contributions are much higher in France and there are many bureaucratic procedures for companies. To do this, the help of a specialist is necessary.
Were there any unexpected benefits?
The biggest advantage is that the children have learned a lot from growing up in a different culture and country. They have become mentally resilient, are amazing cooks, and speak fluent French. Jeany and I love the Provencal lifestyle, especially eating most meals outdoors.
What is the best way to save for old age?
I didn’t start taking a pension until I was 30, which I consider a bit late. I put my sales commission cheques into a private plan. Sometimes they were in the tens of thousands of dollars. I’m now in the process of planning for my future retirement. We’d like to have a flat in London, as our children live there.
What investment kept you up at night?
I have been losing sleep regularly since 2009, because we had to sell our house in Teddington. I certainly couldn’t have done it without my wife’s support and creative input. We had to make this work, as there was no plan B.
There were quite a few things that went wrong at the start. It seems trivial now, but when we finally received our first order of 10,000 bottles from Waitrose, the screw caps came in gold instead of dark grey. We had to return them and wait another two months for the correct colour to arrive. We were running late, but Waitrose supported us every step of the way.
Much more significant was the forest fire that in 2021 destroyed 8,000 hectares of nature reserve surrounding our estate. The fire reached the vineyard and destroyed two barns. The entire harvest was lost due to smoke damage, for which we had no insurance. The impact on the Domaine is still felt. The burnt trees around us are a reminder of that tragic day. High temperatures and a cigarette thrown from a car caused the fire.
Do you believe in giving back to the community?
Yes, I do. Three years ago, during lockdown, I set up The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, a UK-based charity promoting greater biodiversity in viticulture. I have access to experts in the fields of science, agriculture and communications.
Regenerative agriculture is an approach that focuses on soil health, biodiversity and carbon sequestration to revolutionize the way we farm. Around the world, we already have around 1,000 vineyards adopting it.
Did the pandemic have a lasting effect on your business?
Yes, but not in the way you might expect. In the UK, people drank a lot more during lockdowns and sales skyrocketed. We were surprised by the 70 per cent increase in sales over those two years.
The wine market is currently undergoing a period of transformation, but there are some categories, such as premium rosé and a few others, that can withstand it. The general downward trendMy general feeling is that the days of cheap, mass-produced wine are really numbered and that something special and environmentally friendly needs to be produced to do well in the future.
What impact has inflation had on your business?
This has had a huge impact, especially since the war in Ukraine. A large glass manufacturer was based in Ukraine and that capacity was practically exhausted on the first day. Prices rose by 40 percent or more. Everyone had to switch to producers in France and Europe. Demand was high and people stocked up out of fear.
We had the Trump tariff shock in October 2019, with a 25% tax on French winesputting our largest growth market at risk. This was in retaliation for the Europeans imposing a tax on internet companies. We switched to shipping our wine in bulk to the US, to be bottled on Long Island. This was complicated and stressful. Biden removed the tax in March 2021, so we could return to normal production.
Inflation has been a big challenge for us as consumers in the UK were spending less due to the cost of living crisis.
If you inherited a million pounds, how would you spend it?
I would put a good portion into my pension, invest some of it in stocks, and give each of my children a down payment on their first apartment. Anything left over would go straight to my foundation, where I could do something good for the environment.