Michel Rolland
Red Wine Program Consultant

From Pomerol, France, world-renowned Bordeaux specialist Michel Rolland serves the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard team as a consultant on red wines.

He consults with over 100 wineries throughout the world, with clients in St.-Emilion and Pomerol reading like an exclusive list of elite properties. Kluge Estate is among the very few American wineries with whom he works and the team shares his enthusiasm in the creation of Kluge Estate’s New World Red.
Rolland boasts over 20 years of experience in the field, a degree in oenology from Bordeaux University and he possesses a legendary passion for his work.

Christened by Wine Enthusiast as the Winemaker of the Year, 2000, Rolland is known for creating a style of wine that uses very ripe grapes, new oak and fruit to achieve a specific taste identifiable by its ripeness, low acidity and very soft tannins. His self-titled “Rolland Method,” also known as the New Bordeaux Style, has been credited with increasing the quality of wines at properties throughout the globe.

In addition to managing his four chateaus in Bordeaux — the most widely recognized is Le Bon Pasteur — Rolland and his wife Dany, an oenologist in her own right, helms their consulting operation, which includes a winemaking lab and equipment store. He resides in Saillanes, near Pomerol, where the Rolland family still works vineyards that have been in their family for three generations.