When Michael Seresin left New Zealand to make his name shooting movies, he could not have foreseen that he would return as a producer - of wine, writes Kevin Gould.
I have known Michael Seresin for ten years. Early on in our acquaintance, he started talking about making wine some day, and maybe olive oil. Like many customers at Realfood, my London shop, he has an unstuffy enthusiasm for great food and drink, which means that we are pleased to learn what he knows. There is always an unseemly rush among the prettiest staff members to serve Michael, and they ignore other customers for the chance to give him something warm to nibble on, such as a pain au raisins.
Michael was born 57 years ago into the gentle climate of Wellington, New Zealand. His father cut a colourful figure among postwar Kiwis: an early importer of Alvar Aalto and Bauhaus furniture, he started a café des artistes, moving on to a theatre restaurant-cum-art gallery. New Zealand at that time was a judgmental and sanctimonious place, with stringent licensing laws that caused the very basic public bars to shut at 6pm, leaving working men only the 'swill' hour between five and six to get hammered before fighting and cursing their way home. Seresin senior's enlightened approach of fine wine by the case and good food as part of the fabric of life wasn't the only thing to raise eyebrows - his fifth and final marriage at the age of 79 was to a woman of 33.
After university, Michael got his first job as a runner with John O'Shea at Pacific Films, before gravitating towards camera work. Falling under the spell of Fellini, he left home, aged 22, on a steamer bound for Naples, in search of la dolce vita. His stint in Rome was punctuated by good, cheap food every day and a weekly feast with friends at Dal Bolognese in Piazza del Poppolo. There, he came to understand that good food and wine require not merely technique and knowledge, but also conviviality. A visit to his grandfather, a whisky exporter in Covent Garden, persuaded Michael to settle in London. In an effort to avoid the 'kitchen sink' dramas prevalent at Pinewood, he worked on more experimental films such as If and Magical Mystery Tour, later making his name as a cinematographer with the likes of Alan Parker.
His father's example and constant travel led Michael to assume good food and fine wine as a privileged right. He became fascinated by winemaking and, as the idea of making his own wine took root, started to search for some land or a vineyard to buy in Italy, where he leased a house among the Chianti vineyards. However, a series of coincidences led him back to New Zealand, where the licensing laws had relaxed and land was still cheap. After exhaustive soil and climate tests, Michael settled on 170 acres in Marlborough Province, at the top of South Island. The ideal of a friendly wine world to contrast with a frenetic life in film meant that he was relaxed about investing his life savings in the project. But what actually followed were four years of intensive capital injection that nearly bankrupted him before a single grape was crushed. Happily, Michael and the estate survived, and we can now enjoy the fermented fruits of his labours.
Michael and his winemaker-manager Brian Bicknell, a Kiwi who learnt his craft in France, now make wines that compare with the best in the world. They have eschewed the fresh and fruity approach favoured by their neighbours, and combine some of the subtlety of the Old World with the energy of the New. All the grapes are picked and sorted by hand, an expense that Michael feels is justified in the avoidance of 'off' flavours. Seresin sauvignon is more mysterious, less brash than we've come to expect from Kiwi wines, and the chardonnays don't suffer from over-oaking. Seresin also makes a small amount of riesling, which can be quickly made and then slowly aged, and a powerful, Alsace-style pinot gris. Fifteen per cent of their production is red wine, from pinot noir grapes that are close-grown, Burgundy-style. Michael is also proving that olives can thrive in Marlborough County: he has imported 25,000 trees from Tuscany. His first harvest produced 50 litres of oil for estate consumption only, with the promise of a limited-release, first-quality pressing this year for the rest of us.
The ingredient to look out for in Seresin wines is Michael's European experience. Thirty years of living in Europe haven't taught him different winemaking techniques - one can buy in such expertise - but his cultural input in the process means that Seresin wines have a European soul and enjoy a European vocabulary that speaks volumes. Here's to Michael Seresin, to conviviality, and to his wines that help our conversation to flow!