French actor-winemaker-restaurateur Gerard Depardieu disdains biodynamics, Jamie Oliver and 'bullshit industrial wines'.
In an interview in the January 2009 issue of Decanter, the man whom Marguerite Duras dubbed ‘a rather attractive truck’ says the world of food and wine are ‘more real’ than film, but claims ‘biodynamics doesn’t exist.’
‘They’ve got to stop. It’s a sect,’ he said.
‘You can work the soil, you can remove weedkillers, but you’ll always be obliged to treat your vineyard. In Bordeaux, they treat their wines to death because they’ve got the means. Treatment costs a lot of money. I only use biodynamics in Anjou because I’m poor.’
He also prefers to share bawdy jokes with the kitchen staff than to schmooze clients at his Paris restaurant, and sweet-talks animals before slaughtering them.
‘Before killing something, I always talk to it,’ he says. ‘If an animal that’s been caressed before it’s killed dies peacefully and its muscles don’t contract with adrenaline.’
The Slow Food devotee disdains celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his ilk as ‘all about marketing’.
‘It’s not money that gives you taste – it’s in your head,’ he said. ‘When you have money, you can buy anything you want. But it’s not what you buy that’s important, it’s your palate.’
Depardieu, who has his own vineyards as well as numerous partnerships with wine consultant Michel Rolland and mogul Bernard Magrez, believes it’s quality – rather than his name – that sells his wine.
‘There are many wines at the same price that are bullshit industrial wines,’ he said.
‘[Mine] is complete honest wine. It’s not a question of marketing.’
Written by Maggie Rosen
