Olivier Dauga: Le Faiseur du Vin
If wine consultants are the celebrity chefs of Bordeaux, then Oliver Dauga is Gordon Ramsay. Not because of any propensity for foul-mouthed tirades, but for his status as an unconventional success, a true maverick of the Bordeaux vineyards.
First there is his appearance – a lion-like mane of blonde hair, a towering height with a comfortable girth that befits a former rugby player turned bon-viveur, an endless succession of brightly-coloured glasses, an enthusiasm that makes him seem far younger than his 50 years... this is not a man that you would miss in a crowd.
His background is also far from standard for a wine consultant. For a start, he is not an oenologist by training and had a distinctly varied career before finding his forte in wine (the most famous Bordelais wine consultant, Michel Rolland, was by contrast born into a wine-making family, went to the prestigious Bordeaux Oenology Institute to gain his qualification and was trained up by legends such as Emile Peynaud and Pascal Ribéreau-Gayon. Dauga's father was also a man of the land; not of grapes, but cattle, and in the 1960s reared Bazas cattle, a breed of beef that was dying out but today is recognised as second only to Charolais in France for its delicacy.).
Today, Dauga has just been named Winemaker of the Year 2009 by Gault et Millau, and consults in Morocco, the Ukraine, Australia, Spain, the Luberon, Aix-en-Provence, and of course Bordeaux. His unconventional beginnings, he would argue, give him a number of advantages.
Rubgy is deeply instilled in him. Not only because he was once a semi-professional player, but because one of his cousins, Benoit Dauga, was one of the best rugby players in the world in the 1960s – he captained the French national team on nine occasions and was part of the team that won a Grand Slam in the Five Nations in 1968, as well as the championship wins in 1967 and 1970.
It was thanks to rugby that he found himself at Sociando Mallet in the mid 1990s. ‘I had never been in the Medoc, but went to Sociando Mallet as a trainee because the president of rugby club knew Jean Gautreau (owner of Sociando Mallet). Gerard Clerc, the 75 years old chef de culture, was a brilliant man and brilliant winemaker. He taught me the metier, and how to work hard, and treat the grapes with humility.’
Once Dauga discovered wine, his rise was rapid. From Sociando Mallet he went to Chateau La Tour Carnet, before Bernard Magrez arrived while it was still owned by Marie-Claire Pallegrin. In 1998 he left and created Rollan de By and Haut Condissas with Jean Guyon, where he was director until 2000.
‘My independence then raised its head again; I didn’t want other people telling me what to do. But Guyon helped me set up my own company and became my first client. I had four clients at first, all were noted by Robert Parker very quickly, but I quickly realised that I needed to go further than just wine; I needed to understand packaging, marketing and brand image also. After three years of crazy work, I felt I could lift my flag, and proclaim, ‘I’m here’.
The background in competitive sport meant that Oliver Dauga understood early on that being the biggest team with the most money did not always mean winning; he was also dyslexic and understood that traditional qualifications did not always reflect true intelligence. He has always been a rebel, a non-conformist, and for him, any winemaker should be able to make great wine with enough determination. ‘I’m not a populist,’ he says, ‘but I do believe that good wine should be available for everyone.’
He is also very much a team player, something, he sardonically notes, is not always true of wine consultants. ‘I work for the team; not everyone is so Cartesian.’
He does not like the suggestion, however, that he is a winemaker that elevates ‘small vineyards’ and ‘small terroirs’; instead he is keen to stress that his style works for the best and most prestigious aswell as the little know. He has chosen in his partner, Cathy Socassau, a woman with formidable experience – as a wine merchant, a courtier and a sales director in a large Medoc chateau, before starting work with Dauga in 2004, four years after he had begun the company on his own. Together they are not just consultants on winemaking, but on customer-focused issues, from labels to marketing. They keep their client list focused, at between 25 and 30 clients, to ensure that they can be attentive to each. ‘I realised quickly that if you simply make a wine, your business will not succeed. You have to do all the other things as well – and most winemakers don’t have the time to do that.’
‘You need a lot of imagination to make and market a wine. I believe in highlighting the story of the winemaker, putting his personality first. Bordeaux is typically seen as not at all a fun region. The wine is all in the same bottle, with the same label. I want to change all that.’
www.daugabordeaux.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_96JezN8SEI&feature=related