Michel Rolland is an oenologist, who wears two hats — he is both a winemaker and consultant from Bordeax, France. Since 1994 he has been a consultant to Grover Vineyards, the first company to set up a wine-manufacturing base in India on the outskirts of Bangalore off Hindupur Road in Nandi Hills in 1991.
Rolland, who is a consultant to 100 different wineries in 10 countries and averages 167 international flights a year, is known as the flying winemaker. He spoke to Metrolife on his recent visit to India.
“As a consultant I can be involved in the vineyard project, the soil, variety of grapes to be planted, viticulture management, ripeness and picking date of grapes, vinification, ageing bottling and drinking”, says Rolland about the wide scope of his work.
He has been at the forefront of a general movement towards softer, faster maturing wines. Soft, rich and opulent these are wines that balance the taste of new oak with ripe fruit and can often be drunk young. Rolland's winemaking techniques have been endorsed by world class estates in France, Italy, Chile, Hungary and USA.

Indian rendezvous
Rolland visited India for the first time in 1994, after meeting Kanwal Grover in France. Grover first wrote to Rolland suggesting that he take up consultancy with them. "I felt the Indian climate was too tropical which is not good for wines and for growing wine grapes. I had no history of working with Indian vines, so I wrote back politely declining the offer", says Rolland. Grover then took samples from his vineyard to Paris and requested Rolland to come over and taste his wine. "That's how I had my first taste of Indian wine. The wine was better than I thought it would be and my curiosity got the better of me - I wanted to help to improve this wine", adds Rolland. Says Rolland “I make an annual visit to Grover’s vineyard just before picking time.
My assistants make three visits.” He has helped create conditions conducive to producing healthy, ripe grapes, done in part by severe pruning, removing leaves to let the grapes get good exposure to the sun and by thinning out the bunches.
Rolland studied Oenology at the Bordeaux University and became a consultant twenty years ago after setting up his own laboratory in Pomerol where local grape growers would bring their wines for analysis.
“There are 600 components in a wine which can be analysed, but we conduct only about 25 analysis such as total acidity, volatile acidity and alcoholic content”, he says.
His roots are in Pomerol, France, the home of some of the world greatest Merlots. His family owns four winemaking chateaux in Bordeaux, France.