“My philosophy is simple: I like the world of music, and there I think global because you have to let yourself think big enough. But I drink “local,” Daniel Rossellat smiles, raising a glass of very good Chasselas from the vineyards near Paleo, the festival he founded more than 35 years ago. “I always taste the local wines. In 30 years I’ve been to pretty much every country that makes it.” He travels internationally year-round to listen to and find music groups.

Daniel Rossellat is still the boss at Paleo, which has grown from its first crowd of 1,800 to an annual sellout of 225,000 tickets for 120 concerts, and his stamp clearly marks it. But he says he is gradually making way for his successor. Or successors, for the team that is in charge has already shown their mettle, he believes, led by Jacques Monnier, who has co-responsibility for the festival’s programme. [Ed.note: see the 23 July Le Temps interview with Monnier on YouTube, about his favourite groups, at the end of this interview - in French]

Rossellat, who is known in local circles as a wine cognoscente, agreed to talk to GenevaLunch about his favourite bottles, at a hotel in Nyon where afterwards he would be glad-handing local business leaders in his role as would-be candidate for the town council in Nyon. While some people have expressed surprise at his shift from music festival man to politician, for Rossellat it’s a logical evolution. “We’re lucky to be a European model. We could be arrogant about our success but we believe we must continue to innovate. And we have to use our authority to encourage our employees and the public – and the region – to assume social responsibility.” Paleo won a Midem Green award in 2008, the latest in a string of awards for its environmental efforts.

Rossellat has the support of the Greens and Socialists in Nyon,
while remaining an independent, and he has paid out of his own pocket
for a poll to get a clearer idea of how he is viewed by the public, in
order to calm fears among political regulars who weren’t sure they
wanted to be aligned with a popular music festival name. His pragmatism
reflects his practical approach to Paleo over the years, and the
business sense he has gained in running the CHF 19.1 million a year
(2007 figure) operation.

”You start out when you’re a young entrepreneur by dreaming, then
you make a bit of progress and you dream some more, and each time it’s
a bigger dream. In the end, you’ve realized what you set out to do and
you move on to the next phase, where the dream becomes a bit more
adult. You look for balance. With Paleo, that meant the public, the
organization of it, our aspirations.”

Paleo was something of a Swiss offshoot of the US Woodstock movement
but it returned every year, a bit bigger and more solid. Today it has
become a very grown-up kind of festival that has nevertheless retained
its youthful appeal and spirit to a remarkable extent. Rossellat is
clearly proud of its track record, especially in the area of energy
consumption and the festival’s approach to its environment. “We’ve been able to innovate a lot, with the Compagnie Carabosse, for example. And not just on stage. HES and Elca
have been good innovation partners. And we’ve worked closely with
Romande Energie on how to best use electricity. We have 50 hectares
that we must light, for safety, but we were able to work out a system
that turns them off automatically.”

The festival uses refrigerators that consume little electricity, he
points out. Water consumption is being cut this year with water mixers
that add air, reducing consumption by about 30%. Dry toilets and dry
urinals are being introduced to help get individual consumption down
from 24 litres in 2007 to 20 litres by 2010.

A man whose mission has clearly shifted from making music and having
giant parties to doing the same but in a very green way might not sound
like a typical winelover.  Rossellat is quick to correct that image.
When he was 17 or 18, he says, he discovered how many different
varieties of wine there were and by age 20 he was learning how to
assess them. He started studying engineering at EPFL, the Lausanne
polytechnic institute, but stopped when a professor counseled him to
follow his heart, which was clearly with Paleo.

On the side, he studied oenology at the wine school of the Federal Agricultural Institute in Changins
to get a diploma that would allow him to become a wine merchant. He and
a small group of friends bought a small wine shop “in case Paleo didn’t
work out,” he says with a slightly sheepish smile. The shop sold wine
at Expo 2002, the Swiss national exposition, and then closed. Paleo was
working out. And he didn’t have to give up wine, since he samples
several every year for the festival itself, he says.

So who are his favourites – winemakers, not musicians? The list rapidly grows, starting with “Vaud – Raymond Paccot in Fechy, Raoul Cuchon in Morges. And there is Nicolas Bonnet in Geneva, and Jean-Louis Matthieu. And there are several people in Founex who are excellent, such as the Dutruys. And Philippe Bovey
in Givrins. I like a lot of bordeaux and burgundies.” Rossellat is off
and running with his list, moving quickly on to new world wines. “Chile
certainly has some excellent ones and Stellenbosch in South Africa, I
like many of these. In Napa Valley, a favourite is the Hess Collecction – their artwork collection is also very good.”

Wines that he prefers include Syrahs, Sauvignon Blancs and
Chardonnays, but he is always willing to try new things. “When I’m in a
Swiss restaurant with a sommelier I always say, ’surprise me.’

He spends spare time in the Valais, Switzerland’s largest wine
canton, but he rarely visits its cellars. “I mostly like to sit around
with friends to drink wine.”

Video, Jacques Monnier, co-programme designer.

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