With Mother’s Day upon us, I thought it would be a nice time to feature some excellent wineries with women at the helm. While women owning wineries or being employed in head winemaking positions is becoming much more common, even as recently as 10 years ago it was still pretty rare. To be certain, women in principal and leadership roles are still a minority, but the extremely patriarchal past of the wine industry is finally evolving to embrace women in leadership roles. Some are starting their own operations from scratch and others are taking over family businesses that would have previously only been vested to male heirs. And not only are these women taking the reins, in many cases they are elevating the estate’s reputation and holdings. So this week, let’s celebrate moms by celebrating with delicious wines made by some moms in the industry.

As I’m sitting down to write this, I’m realizing there is no red wine in this week’s features. That was not intentional. I was more focused on featuring my favourite female run wineries and then later realized there was no reds…but that’s OK, it’s spring, right? Let’s hope for nice weather and drink something fresh! And as usual, the purchase of any of the wines gets you access to Saturday evening’s Zoom tasting, so if mom is a wine fan, it might be a nice socially distanced activity for the weekend!

Alice Paillard, CEO, owner, manager of Champange Bruno Paillard

ALICE PAILLARD
I first met Alice Paillard about 10 years ago on one of her market visits to Toronto where she captivated everyone she met with her passion and enthusiasm for Champagne in a refreshingly casual way, not particularly standard of her industry at the time. Shortly thereafter I visited her in Reims where I had one of the most memorable dinners of my life, eating black truffle omelettes with truffles they hunted on a recent vacation to the south of France paired perfectly with some outstanding older vintages of their family’s Champagne. We ate from our laps sitting on antique couches in the great room in front of a large fireplace in her parents home along with Maddame Paillard (her mother, Bruno’s wife) and her husband and newborn baby at the time. Growing up and working alongside her father, Alice has learned to appreciate swimming upstream and going against the grain when necessary to seek quality above all else. Having been groomed by her father to take over the family business, Alice has become one of the most influential figures in Champange. She now carries the title of CEO/owner/manager of Champagne Bruno Paillard and there was a very impressive article written about her and several other women changing the course of Champagne recently in the Financial Times. Click the links below for more details on these delicious wines that we have in stock.

CHAMPAGNE BRUNO PAILLARD, ‘PREMIER CUVEE’ NV, FRANCE
$84 per bottle from Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, or $79.99 x6 from Lifford Wines
CHAMPAGNE BRUNO PAILLARD, ‘PREMIER CUVEE ROSÉ’ NV, FRANCE
$109 per bottle from Byward Wine Market, or $104.99 x6 from Lifford Wines

Catherine Mellot, President of Domaine Joseph Mellot.

CATHERINE CORBEAU MELLOT
The Mellot estate has been in the family since 1513 and the Mellot family built a reputation as grape growing and winemaking specialists in the Loire Valley centuries ago. Catherine Corbeu Mellot married Alexandre Mellot in the 1980’s and took a position in the family business as Head of Sales and Communication. Following the untimely death of her husband Alexandre, she found herself the single mother of two boys who had married into an old winemaking family, now was owning and running it herself. Since then she’s expanded the family’s holding’s in purchasing 4 other vineyards and growing to 100 hectares of vines…all the while increasing quality and their reputation at home and abroad. They are the oldest winery in Sancerre and annually some of the most critically acclaimed Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumê. This Sancerre is a top single vineyard in the appellation that any Sancerre fan should try out, and the Sincerité Sauvignon Blanc is one of the best values in French Sauvingon on the market. Sincerité is made from estate grapes, but from outside the Sancerre region, Sincerité is a sincere representation of classic high quality Loire Valley Sauv Blanc that just might become your new go-to house wine. Fun fact, we had a 500 year anniversary party for Joseph Mellot at Play Food & Wine in 2013. It was a pretty great celebration with Catherine in attendance as well. Check out the write up and some pictures here.

JOSEPH MELLOT, ‘LA CHATLLANIE’ SANCERRE 2019
$38 per bottle from Byward Wine Market, or $34.99 x12 from Lifford Wines
JOSEPH MELLOT, ‘SINCERITÉ’ SAUVIGNON BLANC
$22 per bottle from Byward Wine Market, or $18.99 x12 from Lifford Wines

Laura Bourdy and her father Jean-Francois Bourdy.

LAURA BOURDY
Since 1579 Domaine Jean Bourdy has been run by something like 17 generations of Bourdy men with Jean in their names. Most recently brothers Jean-Francois and Jean-Phillipe, but the torch is now being passed to the first woman in the history of the Domaine with Laura Bourdy, daughter of Jean-Francois Bourdy, seen here late one night at Fauna giving a demonstration of how to curl your moustache properly. Laura joined the Domaine in 2018 after having grown up on the vineyard and spent some time working abroad. In just her first few years she has become a new mother and added several new “natural” cuveés to the winery’s portfolio. As an uber traditional winery that makes wines as they’ve been done since their inception 5 centuries ago, and also the first biodynamic certified winery in Jura, they were already natural…but Laura is pushing the envelope to a more raw, zero sulphur, no fining or filtration bottling that we will see in Ontario for the first time later this year. But in the mean time we have the classic “Cote du Jura Blanc” which is a benchmark for the region and a cornerstone of the winery Laura is taking the helm of. If you’ve never had Jura before, brace yourself. It’s like a beautifully stinky cheese. Funky but delicious and traditional…similar to the local Comte cheese that the Jura region is known for. This is a pretty special bottle that drinks like something between a Fino Sherry and a nice Burgundy white. A great gift for the adventurous mom.

DOMAINE JEAN BOURDY, COTE DU JURA BLANC 2016
$44 per bottle from Byward Wine Market, or $34.99 x12 from Lifford Wines

ALSO,
I also intentionally left out Domaine Weinbach from Alsace this week, as I’ve mentioned them frequently over the last several months. But if you want to check out more info on what is probably my favourite winery of all time, and an incredible all-female powerhouse, follow this link and this link for some more details!

VIRTUAL ZOOM TASTING - How does it work?
Each week we have a list of featured wines as part of our theme. And each Saturday we have a 7pm virtual tasting to taste through all the wines and get some history, context, and tasting notes on them as well as some fun discussion. The tasting is free to anyone who purchases any of the featured wines either through Lifford by the case or from the Byward Wine Marketing in Ottawa, or Pan Chancho in Kingston. Some people like to get all of the wines and do a more in depth comparison tasting, some people like just 1 bottle along with some Saturday night wine entertainment. Either way or anywhere in between it’s all good. Just purchase your wines and shoot me a quick email before Saturday to let me know which wine(s) you’ve picked up and I’ll add you to the list for the Zoom link that is sent out Saturday afternoon. Easy!

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The Byward Wine Market is fully open for in person shopping, as well as online orders offering curbside pickup or local delivery within Ottawa. And just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday case deliveries is Wednesday before 9:00am. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on Instagram for daily wine content at @bywardwinemarket and @capitalwine.ottawa!