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The Wonderful World of Wine (WWW) Episode 255
Marilee Bramhall of Iola wines interview.
In this episode Kim and Mark interview Iola wines creator Marilee Bramhall.
Marilee Bramhall is doing her part to change the wine world’s status quo. Although up to 80% of wine purchases in the U.S. are made by women; only 15% of the winemakers worldwide are women. Her company, Iola Wines, champions women vigneronnes who are every bit as talented as their French and Italian brethren by sharing their wines through the Iola Wine Society Wine Clubs.
The idea of Iola Wines came to Marilee Bramhall after years of working in the Washington and California wine industry, studying and traveling the wine regions of Europe, and completing with Highest Honors certifications for French and Italian Wine Scholar and WSET L3 with Merit.
The brand is set apart by a sophisticated style of old-world wines from France and Italy, made with little to no intervention. You’ll often find Marilee hosting wine tastings and educating attendees about the history and stories behind the wines.
You can find Marilee and her wines at www.iolawines.com
Cheers
Kim and Mark
#podcast #thewonderfulworldofwine #wine #iolawines #wineeducation
Welcome to the wonderful world of wine we are your hosts Mark Lindsay and Kim Simone exploring all things wine with you you can find us on Facebook at the wonderful world of [Applause] Wine hello again everybody and welcome to the wonderful world of wine how are you today Kim I’m doing great Mark and how about yourself everything is great another new year is here once again we have a very special guest Kim we have Marley Bramhall from Iola wines how are
You Marley hey Mark and Kim I’m doing great thanks for having me on it’s great to be here welcome to the show we really appreciate hearing everything about you we wanted out to listeners to learn about your company and yourself can you please start out by giving a short intro
On yourself in your company sure yeah absolutely so I’m marily Lee Bramhall I’m the founder of Iola wines and Iola wines is focused on sourcing the best most exciting expressive wines that are naturally made from women wine makers in France and Italy and we’ve been around
For a few years now but really starting to work on building and developing the business over the past year it’s exciting to be talking to you all out on the other coast I’m in Seattle we always talk to people all over the country but I feel like we get really excited for
People who have been working in the wine business for a while and have been doing multiple things in the wine industry and then have sort of found this passion and have created a new company and it’s really exciting to see what people are doing with those special interests of
Theirs and how they are promoting wineries really from all over the world it’s always really exciting to get to talk to people who’ve kind of made their passions into their businesses and this is something that we see an awful lot from people in the wine business but you
Started in California is that correct well I started here on the West Coast yeah working for um a large wine company here the largest Wine Company here in the state of Washington that also had some Holdings in California so I had the great Good Fortune to travel to Napa
Valley quarterly for quite some time and it was wonderful it’s such a great time at that point in my career I really actually was looking for a way to move there never managed to make that happen which is probably good cuz I probably wouldn’t be involved with Iola wines at
This point if that had happened have you been in the wine industry for your whole career or is this like kind of a a second phase for you well it’s funny it was actually a first phase then a pause because so I was in the wine business
For just under a decade and then I left wine and my thought was you know okay that’s chapter’s closed I’m moving on but I love to tell people that um wine does this thing where it kind of gets its hooks in you or it gets in your
Blood I guess it’s like the mob you know like once you think you’re out then you’re right back in or something like that it’s a lifelong commitment yeah yeah I mean and so that’s what happened to me basically I I mean in 2008 is when I I started to get really curious about
The old world and that was also coincidentally the year that I left domestic wine and I actually haven’t I don’t think I’ve bought even a bottle of domestic wine since 2008 just because I got into this place of deciding I really wanted to study the old world so that’s
What I did and then eventually it turned into a starting an import business in 2017 and it was a wholesale business for a few years and then took an Abrupt right turn in um 2020 as a result of the pandemic yeah that’s when you shifted everything to thinking about online
Correct exactly yeah I mean what happened for me was as a small importer here in Seattle I didn’t have a license that allowed me to do anything but sell wholesale to small restaurants and very small retail so I right before the pandemic right before lockdown happened
I had like six pallets of wine arrived and then we went into lockdown and you know it’s funny at this point where we’ve sort of you know come out on the other side of of the pandemic and so it’s easy I think I mean certainly for
Me so I’m guessing for other people as well to forget what those early moments were like right after lockdown started when we really had no idea what was going to happen there was just such a sense of uncertainty about what the future held and so of course at that
Point you know my small restaurant clients were they were all saying you know don’t be coming to to sell us wine we’re just not going to be doing that we have no idea when so I mean basically the short of it was I lost all of my
Clients my customers in a day and that was March 15th of 201 20 like 2 days before I had done an event at a wine bar here in Seattle and then you know 2 days later all of a sudden I didn’t I didn’t have any customers anymore and I also
Had no legal way to sell the wine that I just received from Europe so it was a moment to switch things up be creative experiment with something new so that’s what I did I really just turned it into a big experiment to see what would happen if I got the licensing you know
Built a goofy little website myself and started trying to sell direct to consumer that is quite the pivot yeah it was it was um I mean things haven’t changed hugely but I that point I used to say that I was the CEO which meant the chief everything officer because
Really I did I built the website it was terrible that was the first website Iola ever had and it was really basic someone could order wine and you know a transaction you know transactions could happen but it it wasn’t fabulous it didn’t do much and then I know I had to
Set up all the bookkeeping myself and learn about accounting and bookkeeping and that was kind of a new thing for me so there was social media I did all of that myself so there was a lot for me to do and then at the same time just you
Know the process of selling wine and what that was like and selling during covid was actually a really interesting experience I find that you know so many people have difficult kind of you know in some cases traumatic pandemic stories and mine actually is really pretty great
I was felt very blessed about how things went for me I mean I I’m where I am now because of the need to figure out a way to sell wine when I could didn’t way to and then through the pandemic I was delivering wine to people so literally I
Would stand on people’s doorsteps delivering wine from Italy and France and they would tell me about you know when they went to Tuscany or when they went to borda or when they went to burgundy and for them it was a way to travel when they couldn’t to sort of to
Relive those travel memories through a glass of wine so it was really actually a really special experience for me I have a lot of great memories of standing on people’s doorsteps masked and just listening to them um talk about their lives what a lovely way to frame it
Too yeah the story is just amazing I mean it’s not only survival but the background of what you sell and who you promote it’s really the whole thing Kim and I love about the wine world you’re focusing on the small production but you’re focusing also on women owned and
Women run businesses and saw a stat on your website about 80% of the wine purchased in the US is made by a woman did you use that research to kind of go the direction you went to 80% up to I mean some say some say 85% of of wine
Purchases are made by women yeah but only 15% of the wine makers are women in the world correct yeah that is that’s the I mean there are some it varies from of course from region to region um I think in Champagne it’s about something like 25% of of wine Growers are women I
Think in California it’s something like 20% so yeah globally the number that I’ve found is 15% and you know that’s just the number of producers it’s not you know we’re not talking about the volume of wine produced by women I think if we looked at that number it’ probably
Be significantly smaller than 15% of all wine produced so yeah it’s definitely purpose-driven for me and Mark did you ask did I use that information when I was sort of putting this business together yeah did you look at that data thinking there’s a role out there I need
To fill for these women purchasing wine oh I wish I could say yes and that I was that planful and thoughtful but no I didn’t it was more um I’ll just call it anecdotal evidence how about that it was more based on my experience being in the wine business so my job was
On the corporate side of the business I did a lot of recruiting for wine maker position assistant wine makers enologists vtic culturalists seller Masters you know people that were Hands-On with and then a lot of leadership development with those people as well once they were hired and I saw
Women both internally and externally trying to get the wine maker positions assistant wine maker positions an olist positions and they just didn’t get them part of what was challenging as a woman to watch was seeing women inside the business trying to win these roles and not being selected and having the
Company select men from outside the business when there was an awesome candidate inside the company they were being what all Ed the words passed over and we didn’t have a head wine maker who was a woman um until toward the end of my tenure it she was in California but
She wasn’t at a marquee location where there was going to be a lot of FaceTime for her there I mean she was at a production oriented location and there wasn’t any sort of Visitor Center there wasn’t n any of the the role where there’s a bunch of star power involved
Or you know you know FaceTime or being the the face of the brand there just that didn’t exist for her and then in terms of women in senior leadership positions we had one executive leader who was a woman so there was that element for me and then there was also
The piece of traveling around Wine Country in France and Italy and you take France for example you drive through Wine Country and you see a lot of per a feasts and and finally I you I just wanted to know where are the May where are the mother and daughter de it’s all
Father and Son everywhere so there’s my anecdotal evidence that’s what kind of fueled my desire to do this so I was going to say that you also have this other prong I guess you can say of the mission of your company which is not just to highlight female wine makers but
To highlight natural wine and organic and biodynamic practices which we’ve talked a lot about on on our show and I can imagine looking through how many women wine makers are then implementing those kinds of practices does that make for a really narrow group of uh wines and people who you’re talking to or
Enough to fill the portfolio well um the answer to your question is yes and yes yes it really I mean just focusing on women producers eliminates so many possibilities obviously when we’re talking about the stats that we talked about already certainly that’s going to mean that there’s just fewer producers
To select from and then yes absolutely when we put that extra hurdle in place of um you know what I call naturally made then it is yeah it’s even more difficult yes there are enough wines to fill the portfolio but it’s a matter of doing a lot of research and I mean for
Me one of the things that it’s important to me that that people understand about Iola wines is yes it’s absolutely about women and naturally made wines but above all it’s about exceptional wine it’s about just wines that are alive and vibrant and have a sense of place so
They really take people somewhere when they start tasting them and you know spending time with them they find them to be exceptional so yeah it’s hard and it’s also really rewarding when I get to discover producers that they don’t have a presence here in the US at all except
For through Iola wines we have a a handful like that and it’s is really rewarding to find those exceptional wines we come back time and again I feel like to this idea and this concept of not only is it about the quality of the wine in the glass but also that story
That’s attached to it and it sounds like that is what you’re going for so not only that story of who is making the wine how are they making it but that the quality is in the glass and that it’s really showing this sense of individuality and sense of place whether
We we call it terroir or whatnot and that there is this story that goes along with a wine that adds just something to it and heightens that enjoyment of drinking that glass of wine absolutely that’s exactly um yeah you hit the nail on the head that’s exactly what I’m
Going for is exceptional vibrant that I mean yeah whether we call it terar or you know whatever sense of place yeah I’m trying to tick all those boxes and like I said it’s really rewarding when and I find a new producer who has that amazing story and boy let me tell you
There are so many of them that have amazing stories they’re just like all of us we all have a story and their stories are really exciting and it’s such a privilege to get to tell these stories and then on the flip side when I’m presenting these wines to customers
Whether it’s in private master classes or just people that that buy from the website and then get in touch with me it’s so rewarding to hear people enjoying the wines and it’s great both sides and the funny thing is is that the producers I work with they all want to
Know who are the people drinking our wines you know can what do tell us about them so the other side of it too yes yeah it’s on both sides yes I mean I like to tell people that my role is just to be the link I’m just the link between
The producers in France and Italy and the people here in the US that are enjoying the wines Mary one of the things I wanted to ask you to get your opinion on you mentioned champagne and we talked about how women wine makers were not really getting the respect or
The recognition they deserve and way back 1700s 1800s champagne houses were run by women women owned and women run operation what do you think happened over the years where it was acceptable way back like that and then it just kind of faded away well I I mean okay so if
You will indulge some wine history geeking out for a minute I will tell you what my opinion is about that first of all I will say I have a point of you about champagne which is this I believe that and you know this is just my opinion this is nobody else’s opinion
People can agree or disagree but I strongly believe that champagne the region and the wine is what it is today largely because of the resilience and the innovation of women um you talked about women run and women owned champagne houses way back when so yeah
The first one was the Madame V Cleo and that was around the turn of the the early 1800s I think she was married around the early 1800s um not for a very long time either her husband died at a very young age about 5 years after they
Were married so that put her in a position a unique position a very unique position and that was to be a widow and in France because of the way the Napoleonic Code was written and I think the Napoleonic Code came out in around 1805 restricted women from being able to
Own a business they certainly couldn’t have a bank account or anything like that without the express permission of either you know a father a husband you know maybe a brother so there had to be a man that was sort of signing off on this happening the exception was for
Widows widows were not bound by those requirements so if you look at all of that you know looking back in history the women owned wom run champagne houses they were all widows for quite a long time champagne has a wonderful history of widows starting with the Madam V CCO
All the way up through today along the way and you know you look at those many of these widows have done very well Innovative they’ve done some very Innovative things made some changes to really important changes to how champagne is made and that completely and thoroughly impacted what I think the
Region and the beverage have become so I’m yeah I I love the stories of the women of champagne and I love that they they just keep going on you know nowadays of course you don’t have to be a widow to um to run your own champagne house but I work with some incredible
Grower producers in champagne that none of whom are widows but they all have great stories as to how they got involved with with champagne some of them are newer some of them are 10 and 11 generation champagne G Growers but each one has a great story and I get to
Go back in two weeks yeah Kim’s Kim’s big on the bubbly yeah oh Kim you and I are likeminded I’m gonna be back there soon myself when are you going I will be there the week of February 5th ah I’m gonna be there other week before oh my
Goodness yeah we’re going to just miss each other I was gonna see if you wanted to meet some producers and have some bubbles oh if I was there with you I would next time next time [Applause] You’re listening to the wonderful world of wine and we are your hosts Mark and Kim you can find more information about mark on his website Franklin lick.com and more information about myself and my classes at Commonwealth wines school.com and today we have very special guest marily Bramhall from Iona wines her
Website is Iola wines.com and you can find her on Instagram at ia. Wines welcome back to the wonderful world of wine we are Kim and Mark and we are here with marily Bramhall and we’ve just been talking about women in wine making in champagne in particular we talked a
Little bit about the pandemic and how uh her business had to Pivot and shift a bit when uh pandemic hit and she had to go from being a distributor to being an importer and what kinds of things do you think the future will hold for your company are you expanding distribution
Are you expanding your portfolio what is kind of taking up your time these days with the company oh my goodness everything anything and everything it feels like it’s all happening at once and um a lot of different directions so in terms of expansion yes we are
Currently working on um a big project to move into several more States so we’ll be shipping to customers which will mean that people can join our wine clubs in pretty much I think we’ll be in probably between 45 and 47 States um yeah which is really exciting so yeah we’ll soon be
In Massachusetts I’m very excited for that I’ve had a number of people that have been to champagne and they have been to Champagne visiting women producers through a friend and colleague of mine who uh does a wonderful she just does incredible work in Champagne with taking visitors on excursions in
Champagne as well as teaching some wonderful classes and seminars and workshops in Paris so through her I’ve had a number of people from Massachusetts actually that have traveled with her contact me about getting into our sparkling wine club and so far we haven’t been able to ship to
Massachusetts there a few of them that are so patient and excited they keep emailing me so it’s going to be really exciting to be able to actually send wine to Massachusetts when this finally all comes together hopefully this spring is the plan yeah we love our bubbles
Here oh gosh yeah I love them yeah I love them too out here well I love him wherever I am same yeah I’m glad you told the listeners I went on the site beautiful site beautiful wine list on there and then I got the message that
You couldn’t ship to mass right now so once it’s up we’ll uh go back on there and I hope our listeners will look at the site at that time and get some things delivered to them as well I have to ask you one of the things that’s
Really trending in the wine world is women celebrities who have their own brand big Brands then not really wine makers they’re not Winer owners most of them they just kind of putting their names on label what’s your thoughts on is this a good thing for wine or is it a
Good thing for women in wine for this to be happening at the level it is and how people are seeing these wines that’s an interesting question mark you know and I will tell you I really haven’t thought about it in that context before so that’s an intriguing question I mean I
Guess it’s tricky because my immediate response would be well if women celebrities are putting their names on these you they’re creating Brands if by creating those Brands it the result is that they’re bringing more women into the world of wine then I definitely see that as a good thing because that’s a
Big thing that I’m working toward is I like to say I’m trying to democratize wine so that it’s you know because for so long it’s been you know kind of certainly male oriented and and white male oriented so it it’s time to kind of open the doors or set more places at the
Table or whatever you know metaphor is the most fitting if what they’re doing is bringing more women into the world of wine and making more women feel like they belong in the world of wine that I mean one of the things I see often when
I’m doing classes is if I have a class that’s um men and women one of the things I’ll often do if if I’m doing let’s say for example a champagne class I will ask if there’s anybody that would like to open a bottle of champagne you we taste several Champagnes for the
Evening so it’s an opportunity for a lot of people to and then I tell you know teach them what’s here the proper ways to open a bottle of champagne blah blah blah you know all the stuff that we people in the trade have been taught for years and what’s interesting is how
Often it’s always men that volunteer to do that women don’t volunteer and you know finally what I realized is wow they aren’t volunteering because this is so inherent that women don’t feel like it’s their place to do that and they so women you know if you go to a restaurant a
Wine list is given to a man if you are having people over for dinner it’s usually a man that’s opening the wine whether it’s still or sparkling so it seems like I mean my observation in in these settings has been that basically it’s so um like I said inherent that
That this is something that men do it’s not something that women do it’s really fun to get women up there trying to open a bottle of champagne and finding that wow I can do this I’ve never done this before born I mean I’ve had women I don’t know they’re probably 70 years old
And they’ never opened a bottle of champagne and did it for the first time at a class with me and it’s there’s something that’s empowering about that there’s also you know plenty of empowering elements when it comes to just having clarity about the kind of wine that they enjoy that you know they
Go away from a class knowing how to articulate what it is they like and what it is they want and how to um articulate kind of the opposite of that what they don’t particularly care for for I guess the answer to your question Markus I guess I have kind of mixed feelings
About it because it’s wonderful if it’s bringing women into the world of wine but on the flip side I don’t know who they’re employing to make the wine I don’t know how they’re making the wine it’s probably I I’m assuming that they’re doing really high volume because they’re trying to capitalize on their
Name so yeah I mean and those aren’t things that I’m a big proponent of I’m not a big proponent of high volume stuff or um and of course I’m I’m all about seeing women as wine Growers so yeah that’s exactly where I was hoping you would go because with so many women
Purchasing wine consuming wine and it is a good thing that they’re seeing these celebrities put out the wines I feel but they’re also probably seeing the wrong type of wines I feel if say Taylor Swift popped open in one of your champagne bottles I would say wow that is a great
Thing for the wine industry cuz she’s promoting something small yeah but I just feel it’s a movement that’s just supporting more of the bigger Brands it’s a good thing more women are drawn to it but I think women are already drawn to it so it’s kind of confusing
For me so I’m just was happy to hear your side of it as a wine seller and buyer and in the field so my questions go off a lot that’s because you’re the creative one Mark yeah no I don’t know about that but it’s just things I I just think of
These things and it it at times it bugs me I know you have such a battle going on and Kim and I fight this fight too where we want people to explore other things out there and you’re putting them in the people’s hands and and meeting these people and bringing them into the
Country for them and it’s a fight and I’m sure you’re seeing it every day all the time yeah I mean it’s a big challenge to try to get people to not rely on the grocery store for their wine purchases and I just feel like there’s so many reasons to avoid buying wine in
The grocery store I mean most of without wine is it’s conventional high volume you don’t know what’s in the wine there’s probably loads of additives in those wines most of the time there isn’t someone staffed there who can help answer questions people are just sort of
On their own in the wine aisle and you know it might as well be the bread aisle or the dairy aisle or the chip aisle or whatever so I don’t know I’m yeah like you I’m a big believer in people getting the chance to experiment and that’s
Another thing that’s pretty tough to get in the grocery store selection you’re kind of getting the same thing from just a bunch of different producers in a in a bunch of different regions but the same grapes are showing up you’re probably not getting a lot of um Native Italian
Grapes that you maybe haven’t heard of or more naturally made or more biodynamic wines or organic wines those are things that don’t really show up in the grocery store as much cool stuff the cool stuff that we all like yeah right but it’s things with interest and something different to them that again
Kind of comes back to this whole story aspect of it it’s like wow this is you know made by somebody who send an email to and they could write you back because the production generally on these things tends to be you know a little bit smaller and the producers are just more
Than happy to talk to the consumers and I loved that story that you told earlier about the producers and The Growers they want to know who’s buying their wines what is going on with them and what’s in their mind when they pick up their bottles so I really like that idea of
Kind of the story going back and forth and and that’s what it is yeah all I am is just the conduit and now that Kim mentioned stories Marley I I have to ask you what is the meaning of Iola oh yeah that’s a story I love to tell um Iola
Was my grandmother she was just uh someone who she had a big influence on my world and I was lucky to have her for a really long time people don’t have a grandmother as long as as I did and she absolutely loved to celebrate she loved
To party she loved to be with people um just loved people loved to cook she was incred able cook I mean I come from a farming family from Southeastern Washington so the world of Agriculture is really present for me I grew up working on our family farm and my
Grandmother was born on an orchard in 1920 and then married obviously married a farmer my grandfather you know she worked on the Family Farm too in a in a sense I mean she like during Harvest she fed the entire Harvest crew I mean one year she made a different pie every day
For a month during Harvest she could cook and bake like nobody’s business and um she did not she wasn’t really a big Wine Drinker um she Jin was her drink and I love to tell people that my grandmother is the person that taught me to drink
Jin I want to be that kind of Grandmother yeah it is something to Aspire to yeah but I don’t have kids so um this was the baby that I got to name a after my grandmother so that’s the story of Iola that’s a great story you
Have to import some Italian gin now or something into the portfolio oh gosh yeah I would love to do that yep be fun I was reading that one of the things you look at when you’re selecting someone to work with is that they have to have made their wines with indigenous yeast is
That it’s still something that is one of your go-tos when you’re looking at a producer well I it’s not a requirement but it’s always something I’m looking for I mean I definitely have a bias to toward low intervention wines so the least intervention you know possible is
Usually what I’m after but at the same time the wines have to be clean and delicious you know no off elements to them so yeah I mean I I have a preference for wines that are vinified with indigenous yeast but it’s not a hard and fast requirement because one
Thing I’ve learned is that there’s no Purity out there you know there’s no it’s very unusual to find the ideal situation there’s always a tweak or element of it that’s different or um unique so what I’ve learned is that I have I just take each story as it comes
And look at okay well does it meet our requirement of um naturally made so are they how are they farming are they farming responsibly and conscientiously are they being very mindful about their use of chemicals meaning they’re either not using them at all or they’re only using them you know in situations where
They have to in order to save their crop that year most of the producers actually I mean I can’t there I mean I have the the stories of people from the 2021 vintage that was so Dreadful in France especially the northern part of France a producer in Champagne lost her entire
Crop that year because she was in organic conversion at that time she’s completed that now but as and she’d you know stopped using any chemicals so long ago and all of that rot before Harvest resulted in absolute loss L that year complete and then producer I work with
In ch she lost 75% of her crop now she’s not certified organic but she has made her own commitment to the avoidance of chemicals and as a result she lost her crop that year so those are the stories I mean people don’t hear those type of stories when they’re looking at their
Wine shelves or their wine lists how do you work to keep getting that story out to people like they’re looking at your wines how do they get that information from you that this is what you who you’re supporting this is what they’re fighting this is how they’re treating
Their Vines this is how do you do that the biggest way I do it is through my newsletter honestly because the newsletter is is the big way that I get to tell producer stories but it’s also like getting to talk to you today is a great example of it I mean it’s
Wonderful that you’ve been so gracious to have me on as a guest today so that I get the chance to tell the stories because the stories are incredible can I tell one more of absolutely we love stories okay so there’s a producer that I work with in Pimon and she’s up in
Alto Pimon in bokeh so you it’s not the long it’s nebbiolo but it’s not the long it’s not bolo and barbaresco that most people that love nebiolo know those regions she’s in boka which is much less welln but exciting because of the fact that it’s volcanic soil up there so it’s
A different experience of nebiolo I mean I love this woman for many many reasons um she’s very very humble and modest and self effacing and she actually joined the she took over the Reigns of the Family Vineyard a little over 10 years ago she had been in a five generation
Law practice with her dad she was very close to her father and when he died she had to make a decision between the law practice and the vines and she chose the vines thankfully her first year hired a Consulting agronomist to help her with her Vines and under you know learning
Learning learning and then she also had a Consulting an olist to help her in the seller and after the the first year she told her Consulting agronomist that what she really wanted to do was convert to organic viticulture and he told her that would be the stupidest thing that she
Could ever do it would be just an enormous mistake and she thanked him for his point of view and terminated her relationship with them and proceeded to convert to organic viticulture and now she’s in a study with UNESCO on how to increase butterfly habitat in the vineyard cool wow and what’s the
Producer name it’s um poder Ione yeah so you’ll see a few of her wines on our website in fact um she does not produce tons and tons of wine it’s about 12,000 bottles a year I think what’s going to happen is more and more people are going to discover her because she’s really
Fabulous and um she’s getting some great scores from I’m not a big fan of scores but consumers find them helpful I guess but she’s getting some wonderful scores uh wonderful reviews of her wine so it’s going to um soon become hard to get her wines that’s my forecast for what’s
Going to happen with her what a wonderful success story for her yeah yeah I’m sure she’s not making a lot of money either she’s just doing it for the passion and the the memory of the family yeah and the family connection yeah I mean they do the other thing she does
That I love is because of where she is you know she’s got a lot of opportunity to capture solar energy so she do that and then whatever they aren’t able to use at the winery they just give it to the Village cool it’s great yeah those are the stories we love Marley that’s
That’s amazing the people you know that’s what the wine world needs to hear stories like that people out there what they’re doing U regions like that that they never explore so we appreciate that yeah and that’s one where like I think I just tend to root for the underdog this
Is sort of nebbiolo as the underdog you know nebbiolo in the long is so well known and celebrated but you get outside of there and there’s some incredible nebiolo to be found in balina and um in Alto pimonte up there so yeah I like to try to get people to experience
Something that they haven’t necessarily had before yeah we’re big Italian wine Geeks too exploring things from all over and I think I shock a lot of customers when they come in and they ask for Bara or something how about this from here and here and like I didn’t know they
Made nebiolo there so nice I love that I end up drinking that’s kind of our thing Mar we want to thank you for being a guest today and we hope our listeners go to your website Iola wines.com and read your story look at your wines and soon
They are coming to mass so uh please listeners check it out and it’s just a beautiful story beautiful website and great wines we’re big Italian and French fans here on the show so uh thank you very much for all your time it’s been really a pleasure to be here with both
Of you thanks for having [Applause] Me thank you for joining us today on the wonderful world of wine we’ve been your host Mark Lindy and Kim Simone today’s special guest was Mary Bramhall from Iola wines.com if you want more information about Kim please go to her website at Commonwealth win school.com for more information about my your
Please go to Franklin lick.com our program is supported by Franklin Public Radio you can find our past episodes on Soundcloud and iTunes and you can send all questions and comments to us on Facebook at the wonderful world of wine Cheers Cheers [Applause] Yeah