Some projects just make the world a richer place.
They are not market testing an idea or disrupting the status quo. They simply and boldly make things better by connecting passionate people around something of value with the singular intent to educate and inspire.
My friend Wink Lorch’s forthcoming book on the Wines of the French Alps is just that.
Knowing Wink well, and an avid user of her first book Jura Wine, it will undoubtedly be an organized and exhaustive understanding of how this Alpine wine region is shaped by the climate and geography. And how this impacts the practices of viticulture.
As well a personal introduction to these gracious people who in this beautiful and challenging environment work with ancient grape varieties unique to this area. And of course, an encyclopedic and curated look at the wines themselves.
Wink will bring to us a way to touch these producers of handcrafted wines. Some artisans who for generations have worked these hillsides. Some truly iconic and larger than life in their reputations. Some obscure and brand new.
Some natural producers that fit even my strict definition of the word, but all of them part of the landscape that draws a living view of this place.
This is Wink sharing her personal view of this region as both one of its long-term residents and an expert of how the viticulture of this region is stylized by the sum of the physical and cultural elements, one by one and in total.
I can assure you that Wink’s very British objectivity will prevail in the face of her deep passion and love for the area. Just barely but decidedly!
Savoie, the principal subject of the book, is a special place to me personally and to the wine world at large. Complex to grasp as a wine region and home to some of the best artisanal winemakers in Europe making wine in unencumbered natural ways from a litany of obscure, deliciously complex, local and indigenous grapes.
I visited Wink last Fall in Savoie.
As we drove around, it became clear to me through her deep familiarity with every detail of the area and more so, the friendly warm embrace of the producers that this is home to her.
Her intuitions are grounded in being part of the place while her observations are tempered and focused by her expertise and market vision of what is truly happening in the region and its wines.
When I think of Savoie, and hold her new book, I will forever think of the two of us searching out Domaine Belluard’s Gringet planting on a quite challenging to find, high elevation plot. (This pic is of sitting and chatting amongst those vines.)
Or being asked to lunch with the harvesters at Domaine Dupasquier, truly one of the most celebratory moments of my life.
People young and old, tables piled high with food and wine. A respite and celebration both, lunching high above the river participating in the pursuit of an ethos of taste that drives people to do the incredibly hard work to make these rather astounding naturally made wines.
Truly priceless to me.
This post is an invitation to join this community of wine-loving people from all over the world celebrating the expression of passion for this region and what the love of wine can do for us collectively to bring us together.
To support Wink in this wonderful project, here is the link to the Kickstarter page. The project funding ends in 11 days.
If you don’t know her personally, watch the video as this is truly Wink in all her casual understatement and humor. If you know her, it will simply make you smile.
If I’ve inspired you to search out her first book on Jura Wine, it is available as a Kindle book here. For a hardcopy, go here and inquire.
Give this project and these wines some consideration–you won’t be disappointed!
