333: How Can a Vineyard (or Life) Disaster Turn Into a Good Thing? Sally Evans' Life Story is Proof That it Can

How can a vineyard disaster become an unexpected opportunity to innovate? How does storytelling transform wine marketing? What innovative pairings go beyond red wine and red meat?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Sally Evans, author of the new memoir, Make The Midlife Move: A Practical Guide to Flourish after Fifty.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

 

Giveaway

Three of you are going to win a copy of her terrific new memoir, Make The Midlife Move: A Practical Guide to Flourish after Fifty. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [e-mail] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!

 

Highlights

Are you ever too old to start over?

How do we build resilience as we get older?

How did Sally’s harsh initiation with the 2017 frost in Bordeaux shape her approach to winemaking?

Why did Sally decide not to pursue organic certification?

How did it feel to present Sally’s first wine in 2018 at Bordeaux's En Primeur?

Which aspects of the story does Sally hope critics understand beyond what's in the glass?

Beyond scores and medals, what forms of recognition have been most meaningful to Sally as a winemaker?

What was it like to be sworn into the Confrérie des Gentilshommes de Fronsac?

What was the steepest learning curve in selling a physical product like wine?

How has Sally found creative ways to market and sell Château George 7?

Why should you incorporate storytelling in marketing wine?

How did Sally pivot to minimize the negative impact of COVID on the winery?

What are some unusual pairings between vegetarian dishes and red wines?

How do you know when it's time to move on from something you've built?

What goals would Sally like to accomplish before selling the winery?

 

Key Takeaways

As Sally shares, she was still living in the southeast of France when the previous owner of her vineyard rang to tell her that the frost had destroyed everything. While now we have barrel rooms and we have thermoregulation, we made a decent wine and that proved the process. That was a good example of how in midlife we can look at something that looks really bad, something that's happened, and actually turn around and make something good out of it.

Sally says that when she hosts wine tastings, she always talks about the occasions when they're going to drink the wine: I think there's one thing in marketing where you profile the customer but I think with wine, often it's around the occasion and what you're eating and who's over and so on. That's how we drink wine. We drink it for occasions.

Sally observes that when we look at the back of most red wine bottles, especially from Bordeaux, it says drink with red meat: I thought, well, that's not really helpful. I have a very close friend, Wendy Narby, she and I sat down and said, red wine goes fabulously with veggie dishes and so we've done it as a passion project where we talk about how to pair plant-based food with different Bordeaux wines.

 

About Sally Evans

After an international corporate career based in Paris and the South of France, Sally Evans completely changed her life in her fifties. She created an independent winery in Bordeaux, completely on her own with no prior experience or knowledge of wine. She threw herself into wine studies, bought a parcel of mature vines with some dilapidated buildings and created a brand-new wine chateau. She now has a boutique winery, Château George 7, in