Forgot your username or password?
Click Here.

Michael Rolland

Michel with wife Dany at Staglin Family Vineyard

Michel Rolland, as honored in The Wine Enthusiast magazine as "Winemaker of the Year," 2000:

"To say that Michel Rolland, the kinetic consultant to nearly 100 different wineries in no fewer than 10 countries, has had an enormous influence on wine is an understatement. Rolland, who helps script the wines at world-class estates ranging from Château l’Angélus in Saint-Emilion to Casa Lapostolle in Chile to Harlan Estate in Napa Valley, is credited by many with creating an entire style of wine, one that employs the generous use of superripe grapes and new wood to achieve extreme suppleness and ultrasoft tannins. He is high-profile, articulate, a major force in wine, and for all of these reasons we honor him as Wine Enthusiast Winemaker of the Year...

"Rolland’s roots are in Pomerol, the home of some of the world’s greatest Merlots, and it is here where he works with his wife, Dany, also a qualified enologist (who happened to have been graduated from enology school with higher marks than her husband). 'I’m from Pomerol,' he says, 'so I love the Merlot at all levels. I have a greater affinity with the Merlot, because I have had a connection with it all my life...' "

His mission as a consulting winemaker is, at its base, rather simple: He wants to help others make fine, approachable wines. To accomplish this, he stresses that everything begins in the vineyards. His clients must, he insists, create conditions conducive to producing healthy, ripe grapes. This is done in part by severe pruning, by removing leaves to let the grapes get good exposure to the sun, by thinning out the bunches. In the winery, the aim is to produce concentration without severe tannins. So the newly fermented wine is put into new barrels almost while it is still warm. Rolland prescribes secondary malolactic fermentation in the barrel, less for its softening, rounding effect on the wine than for the fact that the wine and the wood are more quickly integrated.

"Low acidity, supple tannins: these are the hallmarks of Rolland wines. Did he create the fashion for this style of wine, or has he simply been at the forefront of a general movement to softer, faster-maturing wines? For his part, Rolland constantly denies that he is creating an international 'Rolland style' wherever he works...

"How does Rolland manage to influence so many wineries when he can afford to spend only a few days at each? Teamwork is the secret, he believes. 'A consultant cannot know everything. I am here to give advice with an open mind to the resident winemaker. So the personality of the people is an essential. It’s fundamental. If you have no contact with the people, it’s impossible. I’m no magician. I bring only my experience, and I have seen a lot of grapes as well as changes in winemaking...'"

Despite a travel and work schedule that would sink most mortals, enjoyment plays a large part in Rolland’s life. He chuckles a lot, smiles when he talks, and generally bounds with enthusiasm. In the French business magazine, Challenges, he was recently described as being like his wines, 'round and generous.' He may play tennis and golf, and he may go on skiing vacations, but wine takes up more than 80 percent of his time. Yet he does not act as if he minds one bit...

Is Michel Rolland a wine wizard or just a very talented mortal? Regardless, he’s one of the most important figures in the wine world today, our Winemaker of the Year."