A remarkable Collection

By Katharina Woitczyk

...A lots of passion, a family ans eleven wines...

Several months ago I got introduced to Marie Rolland, a talented young graphic designer.Rolland...? That name defi nitely rang a bell ! And indeed, Marie is the youngest of Michel and Dany Rolland’s two daughters.Having seen several of the beautiful and modern labels she designs I was curious to know more. "So, do you design all the labels of your Dad’s wines?" was evidently my first question. "Not all, but I designed the graphic chart, most of the labels and the internet site for the Rolland collection." was her answer.

I then learned that the Rolland collection, was the commercial entity selling Michel Rolland’s own wines and that it has been founded only about a year ago, by David Lesage and his wife Stephanie, Michel and Dany Rolland’s eldest daughter, and that all family members are involved in the adventure.That called for a story.

And so I set of to interview David Lesage, son in law of Michel Rolland and commercial
director of the Rolland collection at famous Château Le Bon Pasteur.

Later his wife Stephanie, administrational director of the company, joined us for lunch in a cosy little restaurant in nearby Libourne. When you listen to David Lesage and Stephanie talking about the history of the Rolland Collection’s wines and the achievements of Michel Rolland, the worldwide renowned winemaker, you do not only understand the importance wine has in the life of this family, you are sitting in the first rows and experience the passion they owe to it.

For them “The Rolland collection” is the project of the whole family, the possibility to know where their wines are sold, as they sell them directly and of course and most importantly 11 wonderful wines from different countries. Each of them with its own history. When you hear them talk you have the impression to hear the mum of a family of 11 children talk about her babies.

It all began nearly a century ago, when in the 1920s the Rolland family bought a property near Libourne, Château Le Bon Pasteur. At this time nobody could imagine that this property should be the beginning of an incredible destiny, the incredible destiny of the Rolland family. In the 1930s with the creation of the appellations Saint Emilion, Fronsac and Pomerol, Château Le Bon Pasteur suddenly had vineyards belonging to three different appellations.

Not admissible for the strict French administration. A single wine can not be composed of grapes grown in different appellations.Well the solution was original and witty, if you can not make one wine with three appellations and call it Château Le Bon Pasteur, make three wines.

One in each appellation and give them three different names. That’s how Berthinot St.Vincent and Rolland Maillet were born and that’s how the Rolland family suddenly made three wines instead of one. Michel, the youngest of the two sons of the Rolland family met his future wife Dany in his oenology promotion at Bordeaux University.

Together they opened a small oenology laboratory in Libourne. Especially during the harvest period producers from Saint Emilion, Fronsac and Pomerol brought their samples to have them analyzed.

The laboratory was situated in the city centre of small town Libourne and the traffic jams during “rush hour” under which Michel Rolland’s clients had to suffer gave him the idea going himself to the Châteaux for picking up the samples. Visiting the different Châteaux of the region to collect the samples of his client’s wines, Michel Rolland, a real passionate, started to give them tips on other subjects than just the composition of the samples. His clients liked the concept and his engagement.

Oenology consulting was born. Only that at this time nobody had the idea of calling him a “driving winemaker”. When his father died in 1978 Michel took over the family properti(es). (Well you know what I mean.)


In 1986 the Rolland’s, Michel, Dany and their little daughters, Stephanie and Marie were still living in Libourne in a flat on the fi rst fl oor of the laboratory. Their fl at getting a little to tiny for the girls Dany started looking for a nice house in the countryside near Libourne.


She heard of a place that was for sale, the only tiny little problem : There were 9 hectares of vineyards around the property... even though they really liked the place neither Dany nor Michel had the slightest intention of acquiring a vineyard at that time. But the vineyards situated in the appellation of Fronsac seduced them both and they bought.

They bought the vineyards as in the meantime the owner had decided not to sell the house anymore... which could fi nally be acquiered several years later. But the unusual way of how Dany and Michel Rolland came to buy the vineyard should not remain the only unusual thing in that story.


Michel Rolland, always driven to new experiences by his passion for wine and winemaking tried his first “scandalous” experimentation on one part of the vineyard of Fontenil.


The idea was one of those INAO ( the French administrational institute controlling appellations) does not like. The experimentation was success : A highly concentrated fruity Fronsac. Produced with winemaking techniques of the highest standards. But INAO was not ok and forbid Michel Rolland to sell it under the name of Château Fontenil, worse, they even forbid the mentioning of the appellations name on the bottle declassifying the wine to a simple “vin de table” ( Table wine).

For thissimplest form of wine classifi cation one doesn’t even have the right to show an indication of vintage on its label. The fact that usually table wines renowned for their very average quality are sold at very low prices, didn’t dissuade Michel Rolland nor the others. They decided to continue. A name was found “Le Défi de Fontenil” ( The challenge of Fontenil) and a way to indicate the vintage including it in a sophisticated “numéro de lot” system.


It immediately showed a great success. But still Michel Rolland didn’t sell it for an expensive price, only 30€ per bottle for a product that can easily compete with some of the greatest Bordeaux Crus.

When David Lesage started to talk about the next wine, La Grande Clotte, which turned out to have a history not less extraordinary than the preceding four, I started to wonderwhether the guideline of the Rolland collection was not only making good wines, but also with excellent and entertaining stories.

Even before the Rolland’s took the Château under leasehold the proprietor of La Grande Clotte, was the only person in the whole Lussac Saint Emilion appellation producing white wine. Simply because he didn’t like red wine. La Grande Clotte, until the arrival of Michel Rolland produced mainly sweet white wines of a quality not worth mentioning.

As Michel Rolland liked the idea of making something completely crazy and different, he continued to produce white wine on a small part of the property, just one hectar. He planted new grape varieties : Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Semillon next to the already existing Muscatelle.
The later a particularly tasty but also particularly diffi cult to handle grape variety was the one that he was most interested in. La Grande Clotte with its four different grape varieties on one hectar thus became another of Michel Rollands experimental vineyards. One of the rare wines containing up to 20% of Muscatelle, La Grande Clotte is really an exceptional wine. In order to avoid to have to many problems with this delicate and frail grape variety, he decided to preselect the grapes still on the vines before the actual harvest.

This preselection is mostly done by the happy few who have the chance to make an internship in Michel Rolland’s laboratory, later during harvest time. All the wine is made in oak barrels and there is just enough to fill thirteen barrels each year.


That means 3500 to 5000 bottles of La Grande Clotte white. Just as with Le Défi de Fontenil, the appellation name could not figure on the bottle, Lussac Saint Emilion not being a white wine appellation. Thus La Grande Clotte white is sold with the general appellation “ Bordeaux Blanc” ( Bordeaux White). Unlike the widespread prejudice many have regarding Michel Rolland’s winemaking style, the red wine of La Grande Clotte is not produced in Oak barrels.

And here we go ! The funny thing with Michel Rolland is that most people in the wine business pretend to know him even if this is not really the case. One day a journalist even went so far as to pretend that all of Michel Rolland’s wines tasted somehow alike and that all of them had the same very oak oriented style, unlike the wines of Jacques Lurton which accordingly to the journalist tasted the very opposite of Michel Rolland’s wines.
And this without ever having met either of them. Well, Michel and Jacques actually being good friends, both read the article and gave each other a call wondering whether the other one had met this journalist. None of them had, but the article gave them an idea, the idea to make a wine together.

Both of them wanting to produce a wine in Spain their choice fell on the appellation of Toro, and the local variety Tempranillo. They started to produce a wine, with the grapes bought from five different properties, all of which had to respect very strict regulations.


They were satisfied with the result, bought their own vineyards, build a bodega and continued to produce a wine together : Campo Eliseo. Michel Rolland and Jacques Lurton, both more interested in producing wines than in selling them, even “forgot” to sell the wines the first two years, which is the reason why the wine actually on sale is the 2003 vintage.


The South African wine adventure of Michel Rolland, Remhoogte a joint venture between Michel Rolland and the Boustred family, started when Michel Rolland was a consultant in South Africa for Rupert and Rothschild. He met the Boustred family. The latter had bought their property only some years before meeting Michel Rolland and their objective was to increase the quality of their wine.

Michel Rolland applied his know how and, thus two wines are now produced on the estate, Remhoogte, and Bonne Nouvelle, both a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage with the slight difference that Bonne Nouvelle is only made of the best parts of the vineyards, a particularly tasty special cuvée.

The funny thing about this wine is that the couple of zebras you can see on the label really live on the estate. The label of “Bonne Nouvelle” which changes colour every year makes it easier for the collector to recognize the vintages while looking in his cellar and the name of the wine is also written on the cap so that you can easily recognize it.

In 1988 Michel Rolland who stared to get famous as a winemaker in Europe, received all of a sudden a phone call in Spanish. He didn’t speak Spanish at that time but he understood that the person on the other end of the line wanted him to come to Argentina, to make wine there.

The person on the other end of the line was nobody else than Arnaldo Etchart, owner of the Yacochuya winery in Cafayate. Michel Rolland who has always been (and still is) curious and open minded, decided to travel to Argentina and to see, what he could do.

After his first visit at the winery and this first trip to Argentina, a country he loves ever since, he started to consult Arnaldo Echart. From this consulting activity was born sometime later a real partnership.

The cactus on the label of Yacochuya stands for the cactus valley, the dry region at some 2000 metres of altitude on which this 100% Malbec is produced, and the sun symbolizes Argentina. In another region of Argentina, Mendoza, Michel Rolland works as a consultant for the huge Trapiche winery.
For their Iscaye wine they use to buy the grapes from several small producers. Amongst those Michel Rolland has always been particularly fond of the grapes from one small winery,Val de Flores. One year at harvest time, Trapiche doesn’t receive the beautiful grapes from Val de Flores any more. Michel Rolland wonders why and asks.

The winery is for sale. Michel who loves its grapes, decides to buy it. The only problem, as in Mendoza most of the small producers do not only produce grapes but also other agricultural products, mostly fruits, the owner of Val de Flores also wants to sell his quince plantation.


He is old, he has nobody to take over his exploitation and he wants to sell everything together. Even though the idea of putting quince jelly by Michel Rolland on one’s butter crackers in the morning can seem the ultimate temptation for some, Michel Rolland didn’t wish to harvest quinces.

He wanted to make wine. After long negociations Michel Rolland finally obtains what he wants, just the vineyards (by the way, for those who might have been interested in the quince, the plantation has already been sold). Michel Rolland produces a wine 100% Malbec there with grapes from the wonderful more than 50 years old Malbec vines.

This is extremely rare, even in Argentina, as Malbec especially of some age has very low yields and the Argentineans some 20 years ago consumed so much wine that the own production was not even sufficient to satisfy their own market. At that time many producers decided to tear out the Malbec and to rather plant higher yield varieties.

This time is fortunately long over and we can now not only buy Argentinean wines everywhere in the world, but we are lucky to find more and more good Argentinean wine.


After this travel through the world and the history of the Rolland collection wines, I’m nearly sad that there are not some other great wines for us to taste and some more stories to listen to. And so I ask whether there are not any new projects : Lucky enough there are ! David Lesage explains, that Michel Rolland is actually working on a rosé, and even better a second project, still top secret.

I leave Libourne in the late afternoon, driving back to my office in Bordeaux with the great feeling of having met two hearty, welcoming and sparkling persons, having learned more about 11 wonderful wines and the even better feeling that there is stillmuch more to come.

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