The Proust Q&A: Rodolphe Peters

Rodolphe Peters is the winemaker and head of the historic Pierre Peters Champagne estate in the Cote Des Blancs. After 12 years of winemaking experience, he took control of the family estate in 2008 and invested heavily in the export area of the business which now makes up over 80% of bottles produced. 2009 also marked the release of the estate’s first rosé, Rosé for Albane which is named after his daughter. A self-confessed workaholic, Rodolphe speaks to dbHK about his love of golf and his favourite hero of fiction, Indiana Jones.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Sharing good food and good wines with family and friends.

What is your greatest fear?

That I have disappointed my family in some way.

Which living person do you most admire?

Sadly, all the admirable characters seem to have passed away. De Gaulle, Cousteau or Marie Curie in France, but also Gandhi or Nelson Mandela or pioneers like Neil Armstrong, Youri Gagarine or the French skipper Eric Tabarly.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I’m too serious but I try treating myself to fun!

What is your current state of mind?

To get back to basics.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Elegance.

Who or what is the greatest love of your life?

My children.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Are you sure?

When and where were you happiest?

In the United States last November, when we launched our family project cuvee, L’Etonnant Monsieur Victor. My son Victor drew the labels and the wines were received extremely well by consumers and wine professionals.

As for any family business, the two main concerns of generation in charge are always to make the previous generation proud and to find ways to encourage and involve the next generation without placing too much pressure on their shoulders.

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

To be less rigorous.

Which talent would you most like to have?

To understand human nature.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

To have gathered my father and my uncle (Jacques Péters, former chef de cave of Champagne Veuve Clicquot) who were strangers for almost 20 years, around the success of our family estate.

Where would you most like to live?

By the sea with privileged access to a golf course.

What is your most treasured possession?

Our three parcels of old massales vines situated in the outstanding terroir of Chétillons in le Mesnil sur Oger.

What is your most marked characteristic?

Being too self-demanding.

Who is your favourite writer?

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. All the valuable lessons he put in his book, Le Petit Prince he also implemented throughout his own life.

Who is your hero of fiction?

Indiana Jones.

What is it that you most dislike?

Uncertainty.

What is your greatest regret?

That my grandfather Pierre Péters has not known my son, his first grandson…

What is your motto?

Each new vintage is a blank page.

Who would be your ideal dinner party guests and what three wines would you serve?

So many people! My best winemaker friends, Raphael Bérèche, Alexandre Chartogne, Frederic Savart, Laurent Champs, Jean Baptiste Geoffroy, Etienne De Montille, Jeremy Seysse, Jean Marc Roulot, Dominique Lafon, Bernard Raveneau, Jean Louis Chave, Jean Laurent Vacheron, Pierre Perrin and Luca Currado. Also my wife who loves great wines and my two childhood friends.

And we would drink: Champagne Camille Péters 1921 (the oldest Péters vintage still stored in our wine library), Henry Jayer Cros Parantoux 1978 and a Giacomo Conterno Barolo Montfortino 1970, which is my birth year… Preferably in magnum, of course!