Five minutes with Ridley Scott, Mas des Infermières

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 02 April, 2024

Andrew Catchpole caught up with the film director and Luberon Estate owner at Wine Paris following the UK launch of his wines.

How did the Mas, and the vineyard, come about?

I was looking for a house in the sun. We found this gem and it had 11ha attached to it. The owner had been smart, he’d torn out the old vineyard and replanted, and the vines were about three years old. Now those 11ha are at their peak, and we have about 33ha total.

To begin with we went through the local cave, but we finally had to withdraw, because we realised the wines were really good. Now there’s [winemaking director] Christophe Barraud and his team. So I have no choice – I’m in, I’ve got good people and good wine. We got permission to put the cave in very quickly, so we put in the blade in June 2019 and within two years it was functioning. I multi-task, it’s part of who I am, so even though I’m making a movie, I’ll be on the phone every day, asking ‘how are we doing? any problems?’

How did you get into wine and food?

I was successful as an ad person early, so was able to eat good food and drink good wine when London was getting into cuisine, especially Italian, so more Italian wine first. Then I had a French office, so an evolution into French wines. And I loved the freshness of Sardinian whites from holidays there. I came to wine in many different ways. But I believe what I bought here – by accident – was a great piece of terroir. I can’t claim I’ve got anything to do with the actual quality.

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