Ridley Scott: Hollywood and wine industry are ‘fundamentally the same’

As the wines from Sir Ridley Scott’s Mas des Infermières estate arrive in the UK market, the famed Hollywood director tells Louis Thomas about how a career in the film industry has prepared him for the world of wine.

The director of Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator and American Gangster may be known for creating blockbusters riddled with grand battles and bloody violence, but his other great passion of wine seems a world, or perhaps a galaxy, away.

Scott acquired the Mas des Infermières property in the sun-drenched surroundings of Luberon, Provence in 1992, but it was not until 2009 that it would produce and bottle its first commercial vintage. Today it makes seven wines in total: a red, white and rosé in the Source (RRP: £26 per bottle) and Chevalier (RRP: £36 per bottle) lines, and Ombre de Lune, an oak-aged blend of 90% Syrah and 10% Grenache Noir (RRP: £112). Other varieties cultivated in the estate’s 30 hectares of vines include Carignan, Clairette, Roussane, Rolle (Vermentino) and Grenache Blanc.

Bread and circuses

Before he would pioneer sci-fi films and reinvigorate the historical epics, Scott cut his teeth in the world of advertising, directing a number of ads including the much loved 1973 Hovis Boy on the bike commercial. Asked whether this experience helped him in this wine venture, Scott said: “It all comes down to communication and understanding your audience – you might have the best product in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one knows about it or the message wasn’t clear. Advertising has changed massively with social media so it’s a whole new thing, but to be honest it’s all happened quite organically with Mas des Infermières.”

While Scott runs a filmset with an efficiency and drive that would make Napoleon Bonaparte blush, with Mas des Infermières he delegates to winemaker Christophe Barraud: “Christophe is our master blender and his team is excellent so I trust his expertise when it comes to getting the best out of our grapes and creating our cuvées – but I always welcome a tasting during the process! I am of course a storyteller, so I like creating the ‘story’ for each bottle through their artworks.”

Scott’s label designs range from couples in picturesque surroundings to knights in shining armour. When asked if the process of creating this art is similar to filmmaking, he revealed: “It comes from the same place, but I am always doodling – I was an artist and set designer before I was a director. When I design a visual, I’m creating a narrative.”

“Take the Source Collection for example,” Scott continued. “The fresh flavours come through because of the abundance of water that runs through the region, referred to as the ‘Source’, so the name seemed perfect. The labels are playful and inspired by the Provençal way of life and how I feel when I’m there. Chevalier is more powerful and complex and so the name and illustrations of the knight were fitting. I sketched the labels for Chevalier while on the set of The Last Duel.”

Critical thinking

Scott also suggests that the Chevalier range would pair nicely with a viewing of The Last Duel or his earlier Medieval epic Kingdom of Heaven, though he shared that his general philosophy is “drink what you like best, with whatever film you’re watching”.

There are those who are critical of the notion of celebrity-backed wine brands. Scott, who hit the headlines with his “get a life” riposte to historians who quibbled about the historical accuracy of his latest picture Napoleon, is not one to pull punches when it comes to critics.

As for what his response would be to those who make snide comments about this being yet another celebrity wine, Scott offered his retort: “Firstly I’d tell them this is not a ‘celebrity’ wine. When I acquired Mas des Infermières 30 years ago, I had no intention of making wine. And believe me, this is a labour of love, you don’t go into this in the way we have to make money. Initially I didn’t want to have a vineyard myself – I was too busy – so we sold the grapes to a local cave, they produced a red, and I designed the label for that one.”

“After about six years, the guys called up and said ‘guess what…the wine has won a gold in Paris [at the Paris Concours General Agricole].’ And they’re pretty competitive with these awards – I knew what we had was good but didn’t know it was that good. A year later when the bottles were winning more awards I thought ‘I’d better take a good look at this’. We decided to take production in house in 2018, and now here we are.”

“Both film and wine critics can be acerbic when they want to be,” he continued, “but I have many more decades of experience of dealing with Hollywood. But in all honesty, at its core, they’re fundamentally the same thing. It always comes down to whether you believe in your product. I’m not one for false modesty – whether it’s one of my films or our wines, if it’s good then be proud of it. What we’ve got at Mas des Infermières is special, we wouldn’t be putting it out there otherwise.”

And the wines are indeed being put out there. Scott may often top the global charts with his cinematic releases, but the wines have only just arrived in his homeland. Explaining why they are now being exported to the UK, having already arrived in other parts of Europe and the US, he said: “It was the right time. Everything had come together – the new cellar and cave was complete and welcoming guests, and the range had expanded – we now have two collections, Source and Chevalier, as well as Magnum-only red Ombre de Lune, with more cuvées in the pipeline for next year.”

“There had been a consistent, growing interest in the wines – we completely sold out of Chevalier Rosé and Chevalier Blanc this year within just a few months – and an increasing demand from UK consumers who’d either visited the estate or had heard about the wines. We started working with a great importer and merchant in the UK, The Modest Merchant, and the wines are now available in London restaurants like Toklas, Fallow and The Ham Yard Hotel, and to buy online.”

From the vineyard to the silver screen?

Scott has previously married his cinematic and oenological pursuits, directing the 2006 film A Good Year, an adaptation of the Peter Mayle novel of the same name starring Russell Crowe as a London city boy who inherits an estate in the South of France and falls in love with a local girl, played by Marion Cotillard.

Given the rich 200-year history of Mas des Infermières, it seems ripe for the Hollywood treatment, and Scott isn’t ruling out a film about the estate: “Never say never – for me it’s about the story. I loved making A Good Year, it was filmed in Oppède, where the estate is, and I wanted to capture the region’s beauty and the Provençal way of life.”

“Interestingly,” he shared, “while I was filming Napoleon, we looked at the land registry and discovered the estate was formerly owned by a general in Napoleon’s army, General Baron Robert. He was a ‘health officer’, hence the name of the estate which translates to ‘place of healing’.”

Perhaps Bonaparte himself may have also been partial to Mas des Infermières’ wines – the French Emperor certainly had particular tastes when it came to drinks.