GG_N44_COMPLET_ITA

SOUTH-WEST
– WINE GROWER PORTRAIT –
Mogens Olesen takes great pride in garnering accolades for his barrel-matured wines
Mogens Olesen first trained in Copenhagen as a horticultural engineer, his studies
including genetics, growing plants and producing fermented cherry wines - a
major Danish speciality at the time.
It was therefore only natural that he and his wife, who comes from a family of
horticulturalists, should buy a nursery north of the city. They stopped selling
plants and focused on breeding roses and clematis. The company, Poulsen Roser, now employs
a dozen people and files about 30 patents a year. Mogens explains how, at the beginning of the
1990s, the financial success they achieved by creating a dwarf rose in a pot, gave them the idea
of investing in a vineyard in the South of France.
After spending six months at INRA in Versailles after graduating, but also in Fréjus, he had
developed a fondness for two things – wine, which he drank with colleagues at lunch, and a
mild late autumn. In Denmark, summer is often over by the end of August.
His aim of having a small estate, but one “with good soils and something to do”, led him to
buy Château Lecusse, which then had 10 hectares under vine. Gaillac is a mature wine region
with clay-limestone soils that retain water well, and weather that is conducive to winegrowing.
Twenty-seven years later, the entrepreneur, who spends nearly 6 months a year on the estate,
has significantly expanded the property to 52 hectares of vines. His greatest pride is garnering
good tasting scores for his high-end wines matured in new barrels. His biggest disappointment?
“French administration, especially for labour laws!” The estate also encompasses a few hectares
of lavender for producing oil, saffron, roses and olive trees.
Fourteen years ago Mogens, who never stops working, even bought a “breeding farm to protect
wild animals (rhinoceroses...)”, which are then sold to wildlife parks.
Does he think about retirement? Not on your life!
SUMMER 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE 55