Dirk Vermeersch is a former Belgian race car champion who made a name for himself in the 1970’s and 80’s. After a career ending crash he decided to change direction and become a wine maker in France.
Vermeersch testifies that car racing and wine making are exactly the same – except for the speed! Both in car racing and wine making, Vermeersch admits the key ingredients are passion, ambition and a sense of detail to be successful.
After giving up the car business in 2000, Vermeersch and his family moved to the Southern Rhone Valley and bought a small house with a 0.2 hectare vineyard attached to it.
In 2006 his top wine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape GT-1 hit the headlines as it managed a 93-95 point score from the legendary Robert Parker. Closer to home, the TLN panel of Noses has recommended two GT wines that are imported by Carrefour for their popular quarterly wine Fairs.
In 2009 the vineyard expanded to 22 hectares and positioned Le Plan GT wines as some of the region's top cult wines. The winery now makes seven styles of wine, all aptly named ‘GT’ to reflect Vermeersch’s racing background, heritage and tradition.
On his recent trip to Hong Kong, TLNHK sat down with the legend himself to talk wine, cars and what it’s like being Flemish…..
TLNHK: You are a former race-car legend, why did you choose a secondary career in wine making?
DV: “Well I did not really choose the path. Also, I am not really a legend! I am famous in Flanders and Belgium for my driving but after giving that up I moved into the used car business, where I made a little fortune! Then I moved with all of my family to the south of France and we bought a ruin with a little vineyard with idea of doing some bed and breakfast! I soon realised bed and breakfast was not my cup of tea – making beds etc – so we tried to make some wine from the little adjoining vineyard”
TLNHK: Where did you learn about wine making?
DV: “Nowhere! We started with 0.2 hectares and I just decided to give it a go. I did a little pruning and made a complete mess of things, I called my neighbour and asked him what to do….it was very trial and error. The first year was really a mess! Then I sent my daughter to university to study oenology and we just got going from there.”
TLNHK: Does your fame help with wine sales?
DV: “Well, people know me, but real wine lovers know me as a race car driver. They would ask ‘how can you make wine!?’ It was a little bit of a handicap at the start but it took a few vintages to win people over and I think the wines speak for themselves nowadays. There were only two possibilities for me; spend five years and make great wine that gets Parker points, or spend five years trying to make a good wine, failing and going broke!”
TLNHK: What is the difference between being Flemish and being Belgian?
DV: “Well I’m Flemish! I was born Flemish and I speak Flemish. To us Belgium is just an administrative part of our life. There is no Belgian language as such. We have nothing much in common except Tin Tin (the comic book)! We were created by the English in 1830 as part of a land between the Dutch and French who were always fighting.”
TLNHK: Your top wine, the GT-1, you only make 600 bottles per year. Can you tell me more about it?
DV: “It is a very low production pure Grenache wine. The plot is only 0.6 hectares so I bought a bunch of books on wine making and realised that low yields and mature picking were was the direction I wanted for my top wine. We found our certain style after doing some experimenting. With good wine you need very good grapes and this is what we have been blessed with.”
TLNHK: What do you like most about Hong Kong?
DV: “To be honest, it is one of my favourite cities that I have been to. It’s clean, it’s well organised, it’s very secure. For shopping you have everything and the people are friendly. It’s a really great place where you can enjoy your stay. Anywhere else in the world I go I never use the underground (train) but here I feel so at ease and it’s so convenient and well explained. You have the best mix of the East and the best of the West combined. The only thing missing is a race track!”
Of the total production of Le Plan GT wines, 25 per cent is sold in Belgium but we are fortunate to be able to get our hands on these fantastic wines through Bacchus Club Ltd here in Hong Kong.
As previously mentioned, the wines are also available in Singapore at Carrefour.
Contributed by Alasdair Nicol, TLN Editor – Hong Kong
