The Champagne Mumm Cordon Rouge Club – an extraordinary club for exceptional people – has a growing membership of some of the world’s leading adventurers and explorers.
§ The Cordon Rouge Club launched a unique expedition mentorship competition in November 2014 to support the next generation of adventurers.
§ Justine Gosling from London won this year’s competition. The Expedition will see her cross through 20 countries using only human power. These countries all share one commonality – they all share borders with the Iron Curtain. She will be setting off on her adventure at the end of July 2015.
§ The Cordon Rouge Club will support the winner by providing an invaluable pre-expedition training trip with Cordon Rouge Club members. Plus, the members will endorse, provide advice and offer up their expertise to Justine.
§ Justine not only hopes to raise awareness of the difficulties and loneliness that isolation can bring but also inspire women to put their adventure boots on.
§ Land Rover will be providing the winners with a support vehicle, Canada Goose will be supplying their kit and the Mumm will provide her with champagne for both the launch and their homecoming.
§ The Mumm House is the iconic brand of victory - the House empowers every moment, makes people dare to dream. Iit is there to reward those breaking out of their comfort zone ready to take the challenges that will take them to the next level.
§ Follow the expedition at www.CordonRougeClub.com
In November 2014, the Mumm Cordon Rouge Club launched a unique and inspiring mentorship competition to support the next generation of adventurers. Similar to the Club the competition’s purpose is to support exceptional people for their extraordinary achievements within the realms of exploration, adventure and discovery.
On the mentorship programme, Vicky Hoey, Head of Marketing, Pernod Ricard commented, “as a House it is great to be able to inspire and support the next generation of explorers and adventurers in their venture to go above and beyond, pushing themselves to their limits.”
The Club comprises a growing group of over 30 inspiring adventurers have chosen to twist conventions and follow a different path in life. Members include Ben Fogle, Leo Houlding, Charley Boorman, Bear Grylls, Ben Saunders, Roz Savage and Sarah Outen. For showing immense courage and dedication in their particular fields; from conquering mountains to traversing continents single-handed, the members of the club are recognised and rewarded through membership of the Cordon Rouge Club. The Mumm House has a longstanding relationship supporting extraordinary ‘firsts’ and inspiring individuals since it was founded in 1827.
After immersing themselves in over 40 applications, Ben Fogle and his fellow Cordon Rouge Club members chose Justine Gosling from London to win the brand new Cordon Rouge Club Expedition Mentorship Competition 2015 with her unique proposal. Justine aims to be the first woman to complete the gruelling challenge of crossing through 20 countries from Finland to Bulgaria taking the direct route as the crow flies using only human power by: walking, cycling, swimming, running and hiking. These countries share one commonality – they all share a border with the ‘Iron Curtain’. Along her route she will deviate from the path to explore areas of interest such as the Berlin Wall and the Latvian Riga Motor Museum. She will depart at the end of July and aims to be back in December.
Ben Fogle, Chairman of the Cordon Rouge Club 2014 commented, “we were all really delighted in the diverse number of expedition applications submitted ranging from a Stand Up Paddleboard adventure around Iceland to a unique circumnavigation of the UK however we were particularly inspired by the their expedition due to its unique story.”
The Expedition
In 1946, Winston Churchill, delivered a speech in which he first coined the term ‘Iron Curtain’ to describe the ominous boundary in Europe between self-governing nations of the West and those in Eastern Europe
Justine Gosling plans to pass through all 20 countries on both sides of the 'Iron Curtain'. The journey will take her through challenging and varied terrain including snow covered landscapes, across seas and rivers, up mountains and through both cities and countryside.
For her, the most important element of this trip is to raise awareness of the difficulties and loneliness that isolation can bring. Along the route she plans to meet local people, documenting personal accounts of what life was like behind the curtain and on its borders, what it's like now and the hopes and fears these people have for the future.
Justine Gosling, commented “This journey has all the elements of a very inspirational adventure, including a tough physical challenge, meeting interesting people, historical significance, and political uncertainty told with the sensitivity of a woman on a journey. I really hope my adventure will gain a lot of public interest and support for my charities but I also hope that by being a female adventurer will inspire more women to lead the explorers’ baton and encourage women to push their boundaries to achieve extraordinary things.”
Support from the Cordon Rouge Club
On 7th May, Justine was joined by members of the Cordon Rouge Club on a pre-expedition training and mentoring trip to the Lake District. During the day long excursion members Charley Boorman and current chairman Leo Houlding put Justine through her paces and personally shared their expedition skills first hand. The day comprised a combination of a ‘classroom’ style session followed by field based training where the team were flown in a helicopter deep into the Lakeland fells and then navigated their way out. Justine will also be having one-on-one mentoring sessions with other Cordon Rouge Club members including Ben Fogle, Ben Saunders and Shane Winser before she departs. This will be a great opportunity to prepare her both mentally and practically for her expedition as she will be able to glean vital information from the members to assist with her route planning, kit list and mental preparation.
She will also receive specific practical support from Mumm Champagne, Land Rover and Canada Goose as follows:
§ A supply of Mumm for her expedition launch/ home coming events
§ Access to a Land Rover vehicle
§ A supply of Canada Goose product to ensure she is properly kitted out
Justine Gosling
The idea for this expedition initially came about as Justine Gosling, expedition leader, wanted to do something memorable and inspirational to celebrate the milestone of turning 30 in 2015. Justine grew up in the East Sussex countryside where she forged a passion for the outdoors at a young age. Whilst she has never embarked on an expedition of this scale before, she is an active half marathon runner and a passionate swimmer having already swum Loch Ness and is about to swim the Bosporous strait in July 2015. When she isn’t doing adventurous things Justine’s is an NHS Physiotherapist in a hospital working with very sick patients on their early rehabilitation which she loves.
In the Autumn of 2014 Justine discovered the Royal Geographical Society. In her words, “attending these lectures with friends really caught my imagination, I would lie awake at night with my mind in over drive thinking of all the exciting possibilities the world presents us and how few of us make the most of them. I am humbled to say that I am no longer one of those dreamers and, thanks to this competition, I can make mine a reality and hope to be the one inspiring others.”