Carol Bailey-Medwell shares two favorite French wines, available at the Seattle tasting room.
Our very first guest is somebody who actually happens to be a successful attorney and a highly regarded surgeon. They decided this couple here you’re looking at decided that they wanted to make a career, a life change, just a world of difference in their world. So it, in this
Case, it led to the creation of Princess and Bear Wines, a tasting room that opened in 2021. Carol Bailey Me Medwell is here with me now. Thank you for being here. Good morning. I’ve been looking forward to having midday wine with you.
Well, I mean, these glasses are empty so we gotta fill them up pretty good. But before we get started, you decided to make a whole career change. What, how and why did you decide that this was what you wanted to do?
Well, we decided first to move to France, we found uh unknown region and we decided to go there and we were gonna ride bikes and take hikes and live our best life. But then we found these wines and I have a long history. My mother was a wine importer. My husband has been
Round restaurateurs and wine people. His whole life. And when we tasted the wines, we were like, there’s nothing like this in America. We have to do this. And my husband was like, uh, really? You’re like, yeah, we’re gonna do another business and I’m like, yeah, let’s do it.
So, that’s how it started. So, ok, you’re an attorney. He’s a surgeon. And you said we’re done, we’re gonna be done with this career and now we’re moving to France. And what did you do at that point? Well, we, you know,
To do another career, you have to trust yourself and believe in it. And so it was like that it was a passion project and we started going around our region and tasting wines and finding these wines. And that’s really how it started was through the wines
And you say there’s nothing like this in the US. So I can’t wait to try it. Um And can you please pronounce the region? Because I, I’m not even gonna try. The region is called the Languedoc and it’s on the Mediterranean Provence is over and most Americans know about that over by Italy,
But this region is over by Spain also on the Mediterranean and it’s Languedoc Rouson, Languedoc Rous. OK, perfect. Um So should we start with the white? Yes, both of these wines are made by female winemakers. Um This one is called Legree and that means diamond dust. And so um this wine is white
Granoche, white car and roussin they’re all Mediterranean grape varieties and she’s an excellent winemaker. All her wines are interesting and delicious. She grows her own grapes. Wait, cheers, cheers to the nominees and to you, to you as well for see, creating this wonderful tasting room. By the way, let’s talk about that too.
It’s just a little bit south of here. It’s in South Park an up and coming Seattle neighborhood full of fun, interesting little shops. So we’re over there on Cloverdale. So you can drive past there in 10 minutes, 10 minutes. We could be there now,
Just walk down there and there’s 100 and 50 wines waiting for you there. So this one is from very, all of these are artisanal wines that are made from grapes that the winemaker grows herself and this wine happens to be from organic grapes.
This just dissipates on your tongue like star or diamond dust. There you go. It really? Oh, that is so light and unique and it’s not, you can’t say it’s like, oh, it’s like a salve. It’s not a Chardon. You can’t even compare it to anything you can’t.
That’s what we have been looking for is wines that are a little off the beaten track, not chardonnay, not sauvignon blanc, something different. Something different that you will with character with. Yes, this is really good. What else do we have here? So the other one, this is a red wine
And this is a blend of sra and Mor Vedra and both of those grapes are also Mediterranean grape varieties. Another, this winemaker is only 35 years old. Her name is Camille and uh Bori la Vita Del. So both of these wines,
The only place you can get them in the US is from US because they’re tiny production and they don’t have enough volume to sell to huge importers. I have never had smelled of wine like that. It’s got minerality, herbal. It’s Sra and Mor Vedra and they are very well
Adapted to this, this terroir. Mm mm mm. 00 my fruity. Spicy. Oh my. Yes. This is your winner with your chart plates. This is amazing. Yes. You know what y’all, I’m not just kidding. I’m not just like everything. No, I’m serious when I say that we like
Wines and we know that we’re used to the taste and the flavor. There’s, I’ve never tasted anything like this. It’s, it’s a subtle, it’s subtle, but I can say I’ve never tasted it. And honestly it’s because the, the wine comes from small vineyards that are all in one place.
So they have character. They’ve got a real personality team. Um Before I let you go and all of them, Marci for this, please, please. Do you have any advice for others who are thinking of starting a second act career? Yes, I think that, that
Blending your passion with some skills that you had before, which is what my husband Steve Medwell and I did um I was a lawyer so I wasn’t too intimidated by the federal regulations, but we had, we both had a passion for wine. So you can, you can do that
In a second act career. You can take something you genuinely love and then whatever your skills are from your, your previous work, you just put them together and create something really new and exciting. So that’s what we did. You still live in France or you back?
Yes. We spend about eight months a year there and then we have four kids. So we’re always traveling around. I call us geriatric vagabonde. We move around a lot. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you for bringing these wonderful, wonderful wines to, to Seattle to our region.
Thank you for uh sharing all this and your story with us and such great advice. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Next time you’re, you’re back from France. You come here, I will and you come see us too. Ok.
Both both in our tasting room and in France you can see us. You will for sure.
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Heavy is Beautiful!