Great Winery Blogging: La Gramiere
Amy Lillard produces what I think might be the most entertaining winery blog on the Internet.
There’s nothing really ground breaking about her "La Gramiere" Blog. But it is entertaining as hell. I think what makes it so is that in her posts you can actually read a sub plot of real giddiness.
Amy and her Husband Matt recently bought a vineyard in the Rhone and set about making wine. Her blog chronicles their introduction, as it were, to the world of the French wine industry, growing grapes with a passion and making wine…from harvest to buying bottles.
It’s all pretty mundane stuff…unless you are doing it yourself and excited about it…if not a little anxious. Amy’s blog posts highlight all these things in the couples journey to becoming vignerons.
Indicative of the real excitement and giddiness that comes though in Amy’s La Gramiere blog is THIS POST about seeing her Rose being poured and consumed by a customer in a local restaurant. She describes the experience this way:
"On Saturday night as we sat at Terroirs with Matt’s brother
Brian and his wife Jenn, we kept saying, "Ooh look, they’re drinking
it! Oh, and over there too!" It was pretty funny, kind of like
watching your kids at the school play, glowing with pride as they come
out on stage…"
I can absolutely understand what they mean. More important. I wanted to be them.
Amy is apparently a busy Gal. After all, she has a winery and vineyard to tend to. It must be because of this that she doesn’t post nearly enough to satisfy my desire to live vicariously through her and Matt’s experiences. But I’ll live.
There are some really wonderful winery-run blogs out there. This is one of them.
I totally agree with you, Tom. Amy’s blog really communicates the excitement (and sometimes frustration) of what she and Matt are up to.
Thank you, Tom. I think you just proved my thesis that the ultimate in what Rene Girard calls “mimetic desire” is the desire to be the other person.
Wow! What a lift to get in from an exhausting morning of bottling, and see this post! Thank you so much Tom! FYI, the people in the picture are my brother and sister-in-law, and not Matt and I! Thanks again!
I understand how she felt watching people drink her wine. I poured some of my first ever batch of wine – a blackberry wine – for some friends at a party, and watching their reactions, I felt like I could have walked on the moon!
Congratulations on that experience, Amy! Hopefully you’ll keep that feeling even when everyone’s drinking your wines all over the place!
Beautiful stuff, Tom. What a great blog she is running on top of a winery. It really is what blogging is all about—take an interesting business–and communicate it to the world. Nice.
MS