On a short break from scouting film locations in the northern Italian Dolomites, director Ridley Scott made a brief excursion to the City of Lights in early February. At the Wine Paris trade fair, he hosted some private tastings for his Mas des Infermières winery in the south of France. And over glasses of the estate’s newest releases, we caught up with the acclaimed filmmaker. Based on Peter Heller’s sci-fi novel The Dog Stars, Scott’s upcoming film sounds like it will be another big-budget extravaganza. “We’re settling on locations right now and just finished casting, but when it all comes together, we’ll be twelve- or thirteen-hundred people in total on site,” he says. “I’m running an army the size of Napoleon’s.”
The French emperor is a looming figure in Scott’s oeuvre. His first feature film, 1977’s The Duellists, is set during the Napoleonic era, and he also directed 2023’s Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix. On a wine-related note, General Baron Robert, one of Napoleon’s officers, originally owned Scott’s Luberon home and vineyard estate, Mas des Infermières. “He and his brother invented field ambulances; Napoleon was the first one to have ambulances in the field, so the general and his brother evolved that concept,” Scott explains, pointing out that infermières, which is French for “nurses,” is a nod to the early-19th-century military medics. And he’s not afraid to say that he believes the general still haunts the estate. “I can still feel him in the house; nothing spooky, but I know he’s there somewhere,” he casually mentions over a glass of Mas des Infermières 2023 Cuvée Chevalier Blanc, a refreshing blend of Roussanne, Clairette, and Rolle, the French name for Vermentino.
When Scott bought the estate in 1992—which he loved for the home and general landscape rather than the grapes—it had 27 acres of newly-planted vines, which he has since expanded to a total of 86. Until recently, he farmed the land at his own expense and sold the grapes to a local cooperative, which was a money-losing proposition. “I was paying for the labor, and they were making wine and making money from the wine. They gave me a price per kilo and that was it,” he says. “So we decided to turn around and use the grapes from our own vineyard to make our own wine.” After meeting with the man who became his estate manager, Denis Langue, and revamping the vineyards, he built an onsite winery and cellar, which began production in 2020. Although the majority of Mas des Infermières’s 200,000 bottles per year of white, rosé, and red retail in the $20 to $30 range, the estate recently released two ultra-premium cuvées, Ombre de Lune Rouge 2021 and the special-edition Imperatores 2021. While the first is available in standard bottle and magnum in the U.K. and European markets, Imperatores, named for the sibling Roman emperors Caracalla and Geta, who ruled jointly from 209 to 211 AD, was made for the U.S. market in a limited edition bottling of 400 magnums.
Imperatores’s label and box feature Scott’s stylised sketch of a coin bearing the brothers’ visages. It was released in conjunction with his most recent film, the blockbuster Gladiator II, which is set during the reign of the rival rulers, who were the sons of Emperor Septimius Severus. The box also includes Scott’s signature and a prop coin from the film. Scott does the illustrations for all his labels, as his long career in advertising made him realize that his packaging needs to be eye-catching. “I’m a big advertising man; I did Steve Jobs’s first ad for the Super Bowl—that was me—and I cleaned his stock out in two fucking weeks,” referring to the 1984 Apple Macintosh ad that is considered one of the most legendary Super Bowl commercials of all time. So with his wine labels he began to create his own designs, several of which feature sketches of his dogs. “When you go into a wine store, the labels are all letters, so unless you are knowledgeable, you don’t know what the hell the lettering is about,” Scott says. “You might not even recognize a good label,” But if you can catch a buyer with a captivating image, “you’re halfway there,” he says. “They see the picture in the wine shop and say, ‘You know what, I’ll try the wine.’”
In addition to Langue, Scott also brought on winemaker Christophe Barraud, the estate’s managing director, whose 30-year career includes stints in Costières de Nimes, Tavel, Lirac, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape prior to his landing in the Luberon. Barraud crafted Imperatores with 90 percent Syrah and 10 percent Grenache that were vinified in concrete vats “to take advantage of the inertia of the material and maintain moderate temperatures during fermentation,” before 12 months of maturation in oak barrels, he says. The Syrah is from 25-year-old low-yielding vines planted at 950 feet above sea level in limestone soils. “The vines are trained, and the leaves are thinned out around the fruit to improve ripeness,” Barraud says. “This plot is harvested late, in October, while maintaining a very good sugar to acid balance,” The Grenache vines are 45 years old and planted on limestone soil as well. Barraud explains that Grenache “brings complexity to the blend, with its ripe spices and volume to balance the wine.” He describes 2021 as a delicate vintage, with a fairly cool July and August, which helped to maintain freshness in both varieties.
Mas des Infermières 2021 Imperatores is deep violet in the glass and has a bouquet of cherry preserves, blackberry pie, and caramel. Polished tannins and well-integrated acidity are wrapped around flavours of raspberry, purple plum, vanilla, and clove that drift away to reveal closing notes of star anise and thyme. The estate is HVE certified, which stands for high environmental value and certifies production that respects good agricultural practices and protects the environment. It is also certified Bee Friendly, which focuses on preserving the habitat and the well-being of bees. It’s safe to say that despite his longstanding career exposing us to the dangers that may await in the future and in outer space, Ridley Scott makes his wine with an eye on maintaining the planet we all call home right now.
Photography by Guenhaël Kessler
Previously published on Robb Report USA
