Remhoogte

The World's Most Influential Winemaker, Michel Rolland

The world's most influential winemaker, Michel Rolland, has a stake in Stellenbosch property Remhoogte. Christian Eedes spoke to him and partner Murray Boustred.

 

Like it or not, Michel Rolland is probably the winemaker with the biggest influence over the style of wine you're currently drinking.

The 57-year-old originally made his reputation on Bordeaux's Right Bank where he facilitated a swing towards wines of greater ripeness and concentration
with smoother, softer tannins. He is now defining wine aesthetics across the globe.

His client list reads like a who's who of the wine world. In Bordeaux, he has some 80 clients including Premier Grand Cru Classé properties Angelus and Pavie in St-Émilion, Second Growth Léoville Poyferré in St-Julien and Third Growth Malescot-St-Exupéry in Margaux.

Elsewhere in the world, he does work for Simi and Harlan in California, Ornellaia in Italy, Marqués de Cáceres in Spain, Casa Lapostolle in Chile and Clos de los Siete in Argentina among others.

In South Africa, Rolland has been consulting to high-profile Simondium property Rupert & Rothschild since 1999. He also acquired a 50% share in the winery business (not the vineyards) of the relatively unheralded Simonsberg property Remhoogte in late 2001.

With Rolland having the pick of just about any of the prime sites in the world, why would he choose this farm in particular? He insists the answer is "very simple": he recognised its potential to make good wine.

A significant portion of Remhoogte's grapes has always been sold to other producers, including Rupert & Rothschild, and that's where the property caught his attention. "The wine we were making from Remhoogte fruit was the best in the cellar in 1999 and 2000," he relates.

His wife Dany, a fellow winemaker involved in the running of their family wineries back in Bordeaux, remarks that "Michel was particularly impressed with the Merlot. And he should know. After all, he is a Pomerol boy, born under the leaves of a Merlot vine".

This formed the basis of his decision to buy into the winery business although he admits that it helped that he found his new partner, Murray Boustred, and his family to be "very nice people".

Boustred, a former Johannesburg construction engineer, acquired the farm with about 40ha under vine shortly before the 1994 general elections, set on combining his respective likes of farming and wine. "The cheques don't always arrive at the end of the month but that's part of the lifestyle," he says wryly.

With the help of Jean Daneel, then winemaker at neighbouring farm Morgenhof, Boustred started making his own wine, the first vintage being 1995. Nevertheless, production under own label was never very great, reaching a peak of 2 500 cases in 2001.

With Rolland on board, the Rem-hoogte range was overhauled. Previously, the farm had made single-variety wines (the Pinotage 1997 getting 4 Stars in the August 1999 issue of WINE) but beginning with the 2002 vintage, the focus switched to blends, one of Rolland's "fortés" as Boustred puts it.

They settled on three blends, each at different price points, something that Boustred explains has allowed them to be more flexible in the cellar. For all the "eventual extra complexity" that blends bring, he confesses that he finds them more difficult to market than single-variety wines.

All three Remhoogte wines qualify as Cape Blends by virtue of containing a portion of Pinotage. Many find the notion of the Cape Blend problematic but both Boustred and Rolland are guardedly optimistic about going this route.

Is Pinotage essential to the Remhoogte blends? Rolland's answer is frank: "I don't necessarily think so but I'll try to keep it in as it's very specific to South Africa."

He is preoccupied with the notion that it is beholden on him to make wine with reference to its country of origin. "Argentina has Malbec, Chile has Carmenère, Spain has Tempranillo and South Africa has Pinotage."

According to Rolland, Pinotage can give "personality" to South African wine. "The best Merlot from here will always be measured against the best of Pomerol, and the best Cabernet Sauvignon against the best of Pauillac, but Pinotage has no other reference points." Get it right, and this will result in a wine with its own character that nobody can replicate, he argues.

All the same he feels that it remains a challenge to make "really great wine" from Pinotage. He admits that it is difficult to work with when blending, while on its own it tends to divide opinion. "It has a strong character and you either like it or you don't."

This also makes it "not so easy" to market, with Rolland confessing that he is still pondering the merits of Pinotage. "Maybe I'll change my mind tomorrow. I'm not stupid."

Boustred concurs. He feels that the Cape Blend can be a useful addition to South Africa's wine portfolio as long as it's marketed correctly. He hopes that Pinotage is adding "something unique" to his blends but states that he'd be "only too happy to scrap it" if the feeling was that it didn't make a positive contribution.

The vintage currently available is 2003, which saw a total of just over 5 600 cases produced, of which about 1 800 cases were the flagship Bonne Nouvelle, 2 500 cases the Remhoogte Estate wine and 1 300 cases the Aigle Noire.

The Bonne Nouvelle 2003 sells for R149 a bottle from the farm. It's a blend of 46% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and 19% Pinotage and spent 20 months in 65% new and 35% second-fill French oak. There has been a steady decrease in the percentage of Pinotage used in the blend from 2002 to 2004 (see table), which suggests Boustred and Rolland are still deliberating how best a Cape Blend might be put together.

Boustred recounts that the quality of Pinotage was excellent in 2002 and it consequently made up quite a high proportion of the Bonne Nouvelle from that vintage. However, he admits that the variety tends to "complicate" the blend. "It's a tricky variety, as everyone knows."

"The Pinotage character in Bonne Nouvelle 2002 was too strong," comments Rolland. "The overall balance is much better in the 2003 by reducing the proportion of Pinotage."

Regarding Pinotage generally, Rolland feels that with the appropriate viticulture and winemaking, it can make wines of "finesse and elegance". However, he immediately seems to contradict himself when he says he also wants to avoid "too much finesse".

Is he finally betraying a stylistic prejudice? After all, his critics accuse him of perpetuating an overripe style of wine that lacks subtlety.

"Finesse quickly becomes weakness (lack of intensity) in a wine. There is a fine line between finesse and weakness and it is never easy to distinguish that line. The best wines sit on that limit," he replies philosophically.

The Estate 2003 is described by Boustred as "more elegant and not so powerful" compared to the flagship and sells for R89 a bottle. Here the blend is 59% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Pinotage, and the wine spent 20 months in 35% new and 65% second-fill French oak.

The Aigle Noir at R48 a bottle is meant to be "soft, easy-drinking and good value". It is a blend of mainly Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon with just 3% Pinotage, and spent 12 months in entirely second-fill French oak. "It doesn't really make any money. We use it as a marketing tool," reveals Boustred.

With Rolland consulting to some 100 wineries around the world, it is remarkable that he manages to visit Remhoogte four times a year: at the end of February to check on how harvest is progressing; at the end of April to take a view on the new wines before malolactic fermentation begins; during July to taste current and previous vintages in barrel; and at the end of November to finalise the blends of whichever vintage is next to be released.

The day-to-day running of the cellar will in future be seen to by Boustred's 23-year-old son, Chris, who recently completed his winemaking studies at the University of Stellenbosch and has already worked a vintage in Pomerol.

The farm currently has 33ha under vine made up mostly of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as well as a six-year-old 2ha block of Pinotage which will suffice for all blending needs for the foreseeable future.

Boustred recounts that initially the Pinotage used in all the blends came from a 2ha block some 30 years old. Although it gave excellent fruit, it became "increasingly unstable" and was taken out after the 2005 harvest.

In addition, there is a 4ha block of Shiraz, due to provide its first crop this year. This may well make up an additional component of the three blends, and Boustred describes it as "adding another string to the bow".

Remhoogte also has 2ha of Chenin Blanc, the fruit of which has been bought by the likes of Jean Daneel and Ken Forrester. Is there any temptation to make some own-label wine from this? "We're concentrating on reds at this stage, but eventually we probably will."

Both Boustred and Rolland concede that Remhoogte goes relatively unacknowledged. As to why the property's wines have yet to acquire any great accolades, Boustred proffers that "SA judges like a more traditional style".

According to him, Remhoogte wines are in a more modern, richer idiom and "not what Veritas judges are looking for".

Boustred points to the fact that the Estate 2003 got a silver medal in the Bordeaux-style red category at the 2005 Fairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show. It received a score of 88 points out of 100, just two shy of 90, which would have elevated it to gold medal status. This success was because the FCTWS panel is "more internationally inclined".

Rolland suggests that the new era at Remhoogte has just begun. "You need time before going to market boasting your credentials."

Given what he has wrought elsewhere in the world, for good or ill, it would seem worth keeping an eye on this exciting Franco-South African joint venture.