Interviews

24th Feb 2008

Michel Chapoutier

‘Look, it’s here in black and white,’ says Michel Chapoutier, handing me his business card over a breakfast of pâté, crusty bread and a light Jura red. ‘I am a wine lover. That’s how I describe myself.” He is, too. The enfant terrible of the Rhône consumes and talks about wine with remarkable intensity. “I hate it when people are ungenerous,” he adds, topping up my glass with a four-finger measure. “If you work in wine, you have to be generous. Otherwise, be Scottish and make whisky.”

What it says on Chapoutier’s carte de visite is only part of the story. His passions extend to aboriginal art, vintage cars, Chinese antiques, beautiful women and fine food. He also, it must be said, loves an audience. By turns witty, outrageous, vulgar, perceptive, egotistical, opinionated and hilariously indiscreet, Chapoutier is a garrulous gift to an interviewer. I spent a day with him in Tain l’Hermitage recently and the guy never stopped talking.

Now in his mid-forties, Chapoutier is established as one of the world’s most celebrated winemakers, with interests spanning the northern and southern Rhône, Roussillon, Switzerland, Portugal and Australia. The irony of all this is that he very nearly became a chef instead. The story of how he came to take over the family business in 1990, ousting his own father in the process, is complicated and occasionally brutal, but it tells you a lot about Chapoutier’s drive, vision and sense of ambition.

Michel Chapoutier was born in Lyon, but brought up in Tain. Despite the existence of the family dynasty (M. Chapoutier was founded in 1808) he says he didn’t spend much time working in the vineyards or cellar when he was growing up. It was a trip to California in 1981, where he worked at Grace Family Vineyards in Napa, which initiated his “discovery of wine”. He subsequently studied winemaking and commerce in Mâcon and Paris but learnt “nothing” from either sojourn. “I am proud that my ideas have not been deformed by any school,” he says. “It’s allowed me to have a different way of thinking: my own.”

By the time Chapoutier returned to Tain in 1986, he was full of “convictions”. This brought him into conflict with his father, Max. Michel’s analysis of the situation is typically honest: “My father was my boss, but he had no taste and knew nothing about winemaking. My brother was paid four times what I was to work in the business.  I got the minimum wage because I disagreed with my father.”

Much worse was to come. In December 1989, Max left, or was forced out of the company, depending on who you believe. Chapoutier says that it was going bankrupt and that something had to be done. He approached his grand-father, another Marc, who still owned the business and asked him to sell him the majority share, which he agreed to do. He was 25 at the time. Initially, Chapoutier worked alongside his older brother, Marc, who retained the title of company president, but the two fell out in the late 1990s. In 2000 Michel finished paying him off. He says relations between him and Marc are “cordial” but he hasn’t spoken to his dad in a long time. “He still lives in Tain, but I have no relationship with him. I am his son and I have repaid his mistakes.”

The winery that Chapoutier took over did not correspond to his convictions. “We were still ageing the wines in chestnut barrels and both fining and filtering them. I made a wine for Marcel Guigal at that time, which he aged in his cellar, and I could see the potential of the grapes if the wine was treated correctly.” With the arrogance, the brilliance and the brio of youth, Chapoutier decided to change the company’s wine style completely. He reduced yields in the vineyard and switched to free run juice, warmer fermentations with wild yeasts, longer macerations and (partially new) French oak; he also dispensed with fining and filtration.

There was a certain degree of resistance from customers who liked the old, oxidative style, but that didn’t last long once Chapoutier started winning awards and high scores from journalists. By the time he released his 1989s in 1990, he still had a backlog of wines from the mid 1980s, which he decided to destroy. With the salaries of 35 employees to pay, these were tough times. “My wife worked in insurance to keep me. To be honest, I could have done with three wives like that.”

There were radical changes in the vineyards too. Whereas Max Chapoutier had made two non-vintage blends, called Grande Cuvée and Cuvée Spéciale, Michel introduced a range of single vineyard wines in 1989: his so-called Sélections Parcellaires. Today, these run to 14 different bottlings and are among the most sought after wines in the Rhône Valley, with Le Méal Ermitage (white) and l’Ermite Ermitage (red), the star turns. The reasoning behind them was simple. “I asked myself how can I show the difference between this terroir and that one? That’s what led me to bio-dynamics.”

Chapoutier first heard about Steiner’s “spiritual science” when he was in California in the 1980s. He subsequently met Nicolas Joly, the most famous exponent of bio-dynamism in France, and started to experiment in 1990. Today, all of the company’s vineyards in the northern Rhône (54 hectares), the southern Rhône (90ha) and the Roussillon (69ha) are certified biodynamic, while the 80 hectares Down Under (20ha in Victoria and 60ha in South Australia) are cultivated organically. This makes Chapoutier the largest biodynamic winery in Europe.

There was a certain degree of controversy about the switch. Some locals claimed that not all of the company’s vineyards were cultivated in this way, especially in wet vintages, but Chapoutier has always denied this. Looking at his vineyards today, run by Ludovic Clemenson and worked by a team of up to 40 people (and a horse for ploughing), there is no doubt that they look fantastically healthy.

I’m not sure that Chapoutier is any better at explaining bio-dynamism than its other devotees, but that doesn’t appear to bother him. “The lack of knowledge gives you an appetite to learn. Why does this happen? Why does that happen? Sometimes it’s a good thing to have more than one answer without having to choose between them. I can understand the context and the complexity of bio-dynamism, but I can’t say why it works. It’s based on experimental research, not fundamental research.”

The move to bio-dynamism was easy, according to Chapoutier, because the vineyards were already in good condition. “The quality of our wines comes 100% from our vineyards. The winemaker only translates the potential of what he has; he can destroy it, but he can’t improve on it.”

Chapoutier believes that terroir should reflect vintage conditions, be they good, bad or mediocre. “We don’t try to make the best wine possible,” he says. “We try to make the best possible picture of the terroir. I don’t acidify and I don’t chaptalise because it’s like making love wearing a condom. It’s safer, but it gives you far less pleasure.” He feels the same way about new oak. “I used to use 100% new oak for Syrah in 1995, then I moved to 50% and now I use 33%. It’s all about allowing the terroir to express itself, rather than feeling you’ve given Pinocchio a blow job.”

Chapoutier’s Rhône wines offer value for money at every level, from basic Coteaux du Tricastin and Côtes du Rhône to more expensive Crozes-Hermitage, Châteauneuf, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie. But the real stars are the single vineyard wines, especially the Marsannes from “Ermitage” which I would include among France’s greatest whites.

Good terroirs aren’t restricted to the Rhône Valley or even France, of course. Chapoutier has a growing range of overseas projects and joint-ventures (see box) both at home and abroad. “We didn’t have the money to buy vineyards in famous appellations at the start, so we went looking for new soils with the potential for greatness. I love joint-ventures because I love exchanging ideas. Sooner or later you are obliged to agree, or you don’t make any wine. For me, the two most exciting places on earth at the moment are Portugal and Victoria. I think Touriga Nacional is as great a grape as Syrah.”

Will we see more such projects in the future? “I’m not worried about taking on new things,” Chapoutier answers. “Life is short and I like turnover.” As long as he’s stimulated, having fun and pursuing his love of wine, Chapoutier couldn’t be happier. But the real focus, one suspects, is on the wines over which he has total control. “In the end I make wine for myself,” says Chapoutier. “The only taste I really follow is my own.”

THE CV

1964 Born in Lyon on 7th April
1990 Takes over M Chapoutier
1991 Receives two 100 point scores from Robert Parker for Ermitage Pavillon and Côte Rôtie La Mordorée
1993 Voted best French négociant by La Revue des Vins de France; begins converting vineyards to bio-dynamic viticulture
1998 First investment in Australia
1999 Elected to the regional committee of the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO)
2002 Launches joint-venture in the Roussillon with Jasper Hill
2003 Elected president of the National Commission of Négociants/Vineyard owners
2004 Creates Portuguese joint venture with Bento dos Santos
2005 Becomes Vice President of Inter Rhône; becomes a French Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite.

THE JOINT VENTURES

Terlato & Chapoutier with Terlato family (Victoria, Australia)
Ex Aqueo with Jose Bento dos Santos (Estremadura, Portugal)
Agly Brothers with Ron Laughton (Roussillon, France)
Domaine Cambrian La Pleïade with Ron Laughton (Victoria, Australia)
Pic & Chapoutier with Anne-Sophie Pic, St Péray (France)
Lucidus with Paul Lucidi (Chasse sur Rhône, France)
Meeting of Minds with Giaconda (Victoria, Australia)