March Harvesting My father-in-law, Pierre Louis, died on Saturday. He was 84 and in ailing health. He was a retired engineer who was born in Lyon, but who ran a foundry in Mulhouse for most of his adult life. He had four children with his first wife Alyce, who died in an auto accident in 1963. Their four children were in the the back seat of the car and everyone survived except their mother, who was in the "death seat." The third child is my wife and business partner Denyse Louis. I'm leaving for France today to attend Pierre Louis' funeral. I'm then off to Italy on April 2nd to attend a series of natural wine tastings in Italy and will be back in New York on April 10th. I will be tasting a lot of great wine but thinking of Pierre Louis, who was born in 1924, who was a young man when Barbie was running Lyon, who raised two families and who was the father of my wife and grandfather of my children. He also had a great toy train collection, was an avid reader, an amateur film maker and loved all industrial engineering feats. He remarried after his car accident with Alyce and was very happy with his second wife. They had a child together who by sheer coincidence became a close friend of Marcel Richaud in Cairanne. Both Richaud and Lilli, my sister-in-law, love hang gliding. My father died two Novembers ago and it still is difficult to accept he is gone. He didn't speak French and Pierre Louis didn't speak English. They met several times and respected each other but the language and cultural gap made it difficult to go any further. Several months ago, my friend André Iché left us and it is so difficult to explain how someone so full of life and so full of energy is no longer in his vineyards. My father and Pierre Louis left their children and their grandchildren. My two children, two unique and crazy individuals, come from a very unlikely combination and I can only wonder what will become of them. It is great fun having children who speak multiple languages and who grew up internalizing varied cultures. The norm for them was always the exotic for others and they continue to delight, surprise and amaze me. Sam and Pierre can be proud. At Oupia, there will be a 2008 crop without André. The vines were there before us and will continue after we're gone. Every harvest brings another renewal. Over the past few years, we have been meeting a new generation of vignerons in France and Italy who are working naturally and trying to bring new focus, new energy and more pleasure to their wines than the generations before them. They are building on the knowledge of les anciennes but going somewhat further. I traveled through the vineyards for over a month in January and February and was excited by the new vignerons we met and have started working with. There is a movement of renewal and innovation that is not going to be stopped. I'll be in Italy soon to attend a series of natural wine tasting. Today, our company has nearly 20 growers in Italy and we are continuing to find distinctive wines that are crazy, marginal and delicious. The range of grape varieties, vinfications and diversity of the vineyards is so rich in Italy, but the forces of standardization are so strong, pervasive and dominant. But there is resistance being organized and it is with great pride that Louis/Dressner Selections has brought to America some of the best work of the growing Italian natural wine movement. Kevin, Denyse and I have done this in France and we are well on our way in Italy. Someone has to do it! Nature is stronger than the plans of oenologists, critics and industrialists. There is a continuity and memory of what viticulture once was and what wine could be. Vintages change and in some small way we move forward with optimism, hope and resolve. My father wanted me to be a lawyer or a politician and Pierre Louis wanted Denyse to be a teacher. We were not prepared, trained or expected to be wine importers. And here we are and sometimes I think how charmed a life it is to help bring those harvests into the hands of American wine lovers. The 2007s are already beginning to arrive. Joe Dressner |
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