Isabella used to help with the grape harvest as a kid, but eventually moved on, building a successful international career in insurance. "I came home in 2020, by which time the family had become the owners of Ampelidae, and started learning the ropes from my mother, and now she's retired and I've taken over."
The estate's bestselling wine was created by accident. "Controlling the temperature during the fermentation process is vital. But what happened was that one autumn, we thought it was going to be a very warm weekend, so we turned the temperature right down. Too far down. By Monday the fermentation had completely stopped."
Blanc d'HiverAmpelidae
It was a catastrophe but even so, they decided to taste the unfinished wine. "By pure luck, the fermentation had stopped just at an amazing moment. The wine was delicious; aromatic, fruity and sweet. So we called it 'Blanc d'Hiver', and bottled it. But our usual labels weren't available. Normally we use very restrained packaging, blue, white and silver. But all that was available was orange screw-tops so that's what we had to use and now they are synonymous with Blanc d’Hiver."
The wine sold out, and customers started asking for more. They were even ordering ahead of the next wine harvest. "Our Blanc d'Hiver is our best-selling wine in France. We make 60-80,000 bottles every year. It goes on sale on the third Saturday of October, and it is sold out by March. There is never any left over to export."
