The woman behind the blog: some persistent, paparazzi-style stalking produced this photo of Amy Lillard, who writes the wine blog "La Gramière".
I have been reading the La Gramière wine blog since at least mid-2005. The blog details the adventures of an American couple, Amy Lillard and her husband Matt Kling, who purchased 4.5 ha of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre in Saint Quentin La Poterie, near the beautiful town of Uzès in Southern France’s Côtes-du-Rhône appellation. The story of their continuing struggle to make a natural, terroir-driven wine, along with tales of AOC-denying French bureaucrats, friends and family pressed into service as vendangeurs, and a never-ending battle with the weather and nefarious bugs appeals to the aspiring winemaker in me.
I was alerted, on her blog, that she and around 20 other winemaking bloggers would be holding the first-ever “Vignerons Bloguers Off” (“Off,” in this case, is franglais for an “off-site” meeting) during Vinexpo week in Bordeaux. The Château Luchey-Halde, where the meeting was held on June 22, is located just west of the city. The large, sunny room where the winemaker-bloggers had set up their wine-tasting tables looks out over the vineyards that surround the chateau. Other than the winemaker-bloggers, there were only a few people in the room when I arrived around 11 am. The crowds stayed slim throughout the day, and I sensed that the hosts must have been disappointed with the turnout. Being too far off-site definitely has its disadvantages, but I’m certain that the hotels and other venues just outside of the Vinexpo convention area must be very expensive.
I, on the other hand, was selfishly happy that I had little competition to taste the wines on display, mostly from France, but there were also winemaker-bloggers from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It also gave me time to meet these people, who, like so many of the young winemakers you meet, were a fascinating lot, many having come from non-agricultural backgrounds. For example, there was Oscar Quevedo, a former Mergers & Acquisition professional who is now using his financial and business acumen to help his family’s vineyard in Portugal’s Douro Valley expand into new export markets. His sister makes the wine on their 100-ha property, and they both write on their Portuguese-English blog.
I also met a music composer, Marc Dalbavie, who has recovered an ancient, abandoned vineyard in the Périgord noir region of southwestern France. You can read about his winemaking exploits at Le Domaine de la Voie Blanche on his blog. Somewhat disappointingly, he makes no mention of his music writing skills there, although he did confide during the Vinexpo “Off” that compositions of his have been performed by several symphony orchestras in France and the US. There were a half dozen other interesting winemaker-bloggers who I will certainly try to write about, but the goal of my attending this meeting was to meet my inspirational muse and to hear firsthand about her La Gramière experience.
Lillard is a petite blonde but she exudes confidence and a can-do American spirit that outweighs her size and weight. When I told her about how much I admired her, and that I was inspired by her having done something that I’ve dreamed of doing for so many years, her innate modesty seemed to kick in and she took a step back. Perhaps she gets a lot of comments or email from wannabe winemakers. Or perhaps she had been misquoted or misrepresented on some occasion by a journalist or blogger. But I did sense a certain reticence on her part, particularly when I tried to get a photo of her (but maybe she’s just camera shy).
With no possible way for her to obtain a restraining order, I managed to get her to talk about how a young woman from Colorado ended up in a vineyard in France. Like most things in life, it came about because of a lot of work, planning and effort. Her French studies at the university certainly have come in handy, as she speaks French with little accent and no hesitation. Then there was a three-year-long stint working in the vineyards of the famous Gevrey-Chambertin Burgundy estate, followed by what she describes as three wonderful years at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants in Berkeley, California.
She fell in love with Côtes-du-Rhône wine, and persuaded her husband to follow this dream to its logical conclusion in Saint Quentin La Poterie, where 300 days of sunshine is the norm, all the touristic and gastronomic attractions of Provence are at their doorstep, and where some of France’s best wine is made. I can understand, given the area’s many attractions, why she has no problem attracting friends and family to assist during grape-picking time.
Although her husband is often traveling for his work as a Cisco Systems network engineer, both of them are in the vineyards whenever they can find the time. She says that he is the driving force behind their going biodynamic, and that they are committed to making as natural a wine as possible, using only traditional Côtes-du-Rhône grape varieties, handpicked grapes, indigenous yeast and no filtration.
There is a red and Rosé La Gramière. The red is a blend of 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah and 5% Mourvèdre, vinified in concrete tanks. It’s a full-bodied, fruity wine, with pleasing tannins and the capability of aging for 5 to 10 years. I beg to differ with the French AOC board, which deemed the 2006 vintage “atypical” for the Côtes-du-Rhône appellation. So the deliciously fruity La Gramière wine carries the Vin de Table label, which hasn’t hurt its commercial prospects one bit. She says that half of the 12,000 bottles produced annually go to the US.
I’ve been trying to figure out the appeal of the La Gramière blog. Lillard doesn’t blog that often, which is normal for someone running a vineyard, I guess. James Beard Award-winning writer Alice Feiring, who does the wine blog In Vino Veritas when she’s not writing for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or Condé Nast Traveler has named the La Gramière blog one of her five top wine sites. There are plenty of other admirers, and they’re not all wannabe winemakers. I think that her blog’s success is linked to her infectious enthusiasm, bordering on almost uncontrollable excitement.
Tom Wark, of The Daily Wine Blog Fermentation fame, calls it “entertaining as hell.” I would have to agree, as who could not help enjoying moments of pure, unrestrained joy and buoyant enthusiasm for such mundane things as tractor driving or vine pruning. Their journey to become real French vignerons has required exceptional bravery, a healthy dose of self confidence and the ability to learn quickly, and, in order to be accepted by the locals–and I know this from personal experience, the willingness to see things from a different perspective and the readiness to accept other mindsets and traditions.
Sure, her having worked with Kermit Lynch opened up a commercial connection that gets her wine into the US market through arguably the most important US importer of wine from lesser-known French wine regions. But her wine is so good, she would have found that opportunity anyway. And I guess that’s why enthusiasm and passion is so important in the wine business.
