by Greville Havenhand
Just after Easter a group of twenty nine from the Dulwich Wine Society went on the tenth annual foreign vineyard tour, this time to Bergerac and St. Emilion. What made this trip a little different was the preponderance of women winemakers and owners that we encountered. Out of nine visits only two were presented solely by men.
Women are becoming increasingly prominent in the wine world – Lalou Bize-Leroy and Anne-Claude Leflaive in Burgundy are rated extremely highly as are Vanya Cullen from Western Australia and Jane Hunter from New Zealand. Incidentally all these four use Biodynamic methods, but more of that another day.
The Dulwich tour was notable for three women in particular. Patricia Atkinson, an Englishwoman and her husband went to France in the early nineties “to live the dream.”- a dream that was at first to turn into a nightmare. They had bought a tumbledown house with four and a half Hectares of vines, whose grapes they intended to sell. Shortly after their arrival the husband became ill and had to return to England, money was running out and Patricia had to do something about it. She knew almost no French and nothing at all about wine and vineyard cultivation.
Out of necessity bordering on desperation she set about teaching herself. When her French neighbours saw her driving the tractor and working among the vines they realised that she was not just another Brit with a romantic idea of French rural life and they began to help. A few English friends came to assist with the harvest and making the house habitable. A Channel 4 film crew charted the start of her perilous journey. Rather than sell the grapes she decided to make the wine. More trouble – all the red wine of the first vintage turned to vinegar. She sold the sweet white to an English merchant.
With advice from a local oenologist Patricia learned to such a degree that within a couple of years she was on the tasting panel for the appellation and judging for a French wine guide. She was the hands-on owner of the “Clos d’Yvigne, doing all the tasks in the vineyard and in the winery and integrating into a small, entirely French village. Today she is one of the most respected winemakers in the region, her domaine is now more than sixteen hectares and growing. Her wines are on sale at “Majestic” and are well worth trying and she has told her story in a best-selling book “The Ripening Sun.” Not only is it one of the best descriptions of what goes to get a wine made and sold but it is a funny, informative and sometimes moving account of her life in wine.
Another woman who has, in a very different way, established herself in the forefront of her region is Annabelle Cruse-Bardinet of Château Corbin in St. Emilion. From a wine family in the Medoc she studied oenology, gained experience in California and developed her own very strong wine philosophy. Complex French inheritance laws led to a reassignment of family properties and she finally took control of the ancient property about ten years ago. Young, attractive, dynamic, a mother of small children, she has restored the beautiful Château and pulled a somewhat moribund wine into a leading position among St Emilion Grand Cru Classés. Renowned critics around the world have all praised her wine. You may be able to find some in the Fine Wine section of your local Majestic.
Different again is Nicole Maury-Brichèse. This jolly, humorous woman makes a selection of Bergerac wines at her small hilltop estate a few kilometres from Bergerac itself but its, and her, claim to fame is Rosette. Rosette is not, as you might think, pink, but a semi-sweet white wine made fro the Semillon and Muscadelle grapes. It makes a perfect aperitif and goes well with Asian food.
It is an appellation that was dying out – even now there are only ten or so producers. Nicole’s father and one or two friends did their best to keep it going but when she took over on her father’s death she picked up the torch and not only ran with it, but by force of personality and gifts of persuasion she helped ensure its survival and success. Not only that, she led by example. Her wine is fragrant, complex and satisfying and she proudly heads her publicity “c’est une femme qui fait du vin” . She served it to us with foie gras “toasts” and a delicious cake made by her mother using the wine. The great Paris store “Galeries Lafayette” commissioned a Rosette from her. She gave it an English name “The Feminine Touch”. At the moment you cannot buy her wine here, but if you are in the Dordogne go and see her, or even stay in her gite.
These visits reinforced my opinion that women winemakers are making the men take notice. Some say women have better palates, others that they are more driven, others that they pay more attention to detail. Whatever it is, the future looks increasingly feminine.
Greville is a member of the Dulwich Wine Society – http://www.dulwich-wine-society.co.uk/
