We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marilee Bramhall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marilee below.

Marilee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Iola Wines is on a mission to bring our members the best naturally made wines from women winemakers in France and Italy at the top of their game. We’re passionate about sourcing vibrant, low intervention, terroir expressive wines for our members and customers.

It’s been a circuitous route getting to where I am today. After years of working in the wine business in Washington and California and studying and traveling around the wine regions of Europe a common thread was persistently present. Despite how women were kicking butt in so many professions, wine was different.

Traveling through old world wine regions, winegrowers rarely looked like me. In France we see lots of Vignoble Père et Fils but no Mère et Fille. Italy has its own version of this as well. It’s not a big surprise, for centuries, vineyards have been handed down from father to son, not daughter, pretty much leaving women out of the picture.

This reality isn’t exclusive to the old world. During my tenure on the corporate side of wine in CA and WA, the senior level and public-facing roles in winemaking (winemaker, enologist, senior winemaker, director of winemaking, VP of Winemaking, etc.) were held by men. Other senior/executive leadership roles were almost never held by women – in nearly a decade I saw fewer than five.

Fast forward in time and I realized that I could, in a small way, do my part to change the wine-world status quo. Because ultimately, the wines of the Old World are the wines that have captured me, I’m on a mission to democratize the world of wine by championing women vigneronnes in France and Italy who are every bit as talented as their French and Italian brethren.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from years in the wine trade, it’s this: bold women working in radical harmony with the earth make extraordinary wines.

Having said all of this, my focus isn’t just on women winemakers. It’s on outstanding wines. The women wine growers I work with have consistently grown and made wines of depth and beauty despite being dismissed every step of the way. These women inspire me with both their courage and with their bold, vine to glass, terroir-expressive wines.

Wine is for everyone no matter your background or level of knowledge. It’s excluded too many people for too. So yes, our mission is all about democratizing the world of wine. Our way of doing this is by sourcing inspiring wines from small producers who simply usher the grape from the vine to becoming the wine nature intended; this means no additives except for low levels of sulfites, in many cases no added sulfites, producers who don’t irrigate so vine roots grow long and deep in search of water and thus resulting in terroir-expressive, living wines.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I vividly remember my first sip of wine; it was a left bank Bordeaux paired with a wonderful dinner my Dad made. That single sip has led to a lifetime of curiosity and wonder. Thanks to my Dad, I was exposed to some important ideas early on which have become important threads in the fabric of my personal journey. I’ll never forgot that sip of Bordeaux. What stuck with me about that first, small sip wasn’t that I loved how it tasted (I was just a kid!), instead it was the meaning it held: I knew it was special, to be savored, shared and enjoyed with good food (sometimes good food is potato chips), it was from somewhere far away, where they really knew about wine.

Eventually, I went to France at the age of 18 then returned a couple years later for a study abroad experience. This was my very first involvement with studying wine – it was just enough to hook me completely. When I returned home from France, I went to work in the wine business in the USA. About a decade later my study of Old-World wines began; I knew that as great as a Napa Cab is, Cabernet Sauvignon isn’t from California. So, I “went to the source” and became very interested in indigenous grapes and how they express themselves in their native terroir.

I also started to investigate grape growing (viticulture) and winemaking (viniculture) and eventually to study in a more scholarly way. Through study of the wines of France and Italy – very important countries in old world wines – captured me. The more I studied and traveled these enthralling wine regions, the more I became convinced that more women need to be involved in wine for a multitude of reasons.

One of which is that women are often leaders when it comes to converting to organic viticulture. When you grow your own grapes, it’s common to pretty much cohabitate with your vines which means that your children are playing in and near them. So many producers have told me that they (or their mothers) didn’t want their children exposed to chemical herbicides and pesticides.

Globally, just 15% of winemakers are women. Here in the US, women make up to 80% of all wine purchases. This means that women consumers (and other that support democratizing wine) have tremendous opportunity to shake up the world of wine in a way that’s never been done before.

Assuming choices and quality levels are equal, many women, prefer to buy from another woman. The more people are aware of these stats and if, there are easily accessible ways to support women winemakers, I think we’ll see that 15% of women winemakers globally begin to increase.

As women, we’re becoming more intentional and deliberate about how we spend our money – lately we’ve been hearing more about the “female dollar”. As this mindset and behavior enters the world of wine, I want it to be easy for consumers who want to drink exceptional, expressive wines and support women winemakers to find these wines.

Iola Wines is the only place where all the wines are made by French and Italian women producers who grow their own grapes organically and sustainably and make their own wines according to low intervention winemaking practices. Our wines are made by the woman who grew the grapes – from vine to glass. We keep looking but so far we still haven’t found any other source in the USA for direct imported, organic, biodynamic and sustainable wines that are grown and made by women in France and Italy.

Low intervention is the philosophy of shepherding the grape on its journey to become wine. It’s about working with what nature provided in that particular vintage which means embracing vintage variation, not trying to overpower it.

I’m proud of the wines we source and direct import for Iola Wines and the bold women behind them. Radical harmony is in ever bottle of wine we choose. Radical harmony is what makes the most expressive, exceptional, naturally made wines you will drink. Radical harmony is when vigneronnes work in alignment with the earth. Radical Harmony is how we work with women in the wine industry. Radical harmony is what our community believes in and want to pour into their glasses.

I’m also proud of the way we work with our women winegrowers. I tell them all that I’m in this to see them win and to see the women (and men!) drinking their wines in the US win. I’m also proud of the fact that we don’t take shortcuts. I personally visit and vet every producer we work with to ensure they are what the claim to be.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like many small businesses, the pandemic forced a professional pivot. Personally, I’m incredibly grateful that I had to pivot because this is when Iola was born. Prior to the pandemic I was selling my wines wholesale on a small scale to small restaurants and cafés in Seattle.

In early 2020 I had 5 pallets of wine arrive from Italy and France right before the covid lockdowns began. On March 12 2020 I did an event at a wine bar in Seattle. Three days later everything shut down. I lost all of my clients in a single day.

I had 5 pallets of wine to sell and no legal way to sell it except to restaurants who, at that point in time, weren’t buying much wine. Instead, they were trying to figure out how to stay in business.

I’d been curious about selling online direct to consumer for about 18 months prior to that. This was the moment. It took some time to get the licensing organized. In late 2020 I had the licensing I needed to test the market locally to see if there was any interest in my wines and my mission. That test period resulted in selling the wines, but more important it showed me that people – especially women – care about this mission. That said, I don’t want to make it sound like this has been easy. It’s tough every day in several different ways, I think any small business owner would agree with that sentiment.

But I did learn that women love to tell their friends when they discover something great – not a big surprise as I’ve always been this way. I also learned that my e-commerce customers care much more about this mission than restaurants ever did (and I had some wonderful restaurant clients).

When I explain to my customers how often it is that vineyards convert to organic viticulture due to a woman’s leadership and decision making – often because she has young children playing and running through her vines and doesn’t want them -or anyone spending time in her vines – to be exposed to pesticides and herbicides.

It’s taken so much work to get Iola to the place she is right now and we’ve only just started! We finally launched our brand new website in December of 2022, now we’re working to find, build and nurture our community of kindred spirits that want to be involved in this mission. Iola Wines feels like my life’s purpose; it’s an honor and a thrill that I’ll never take for granted each time someone decides to join the movement by buying a few bottles or subscribing to our Iola Wine Society Wine Clubs.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

The journey is so new, and our marketing efforts are formulating as we speak ( “back then” is as recent as last week). Learning how to be okay with putting myself out there is challenging. Whether on Social Media or in interviews being the face of Iola can feel like incredible risk and profound pressure. I take very seriously the responsibility to see this mission through. I want to do great work for our members and customers. I hope to make a positive impact in some small way on the wine industry and I want to see the women producers we work with flourish, thrive and be recognized for the courage and hard work that goes into each bottle because Bold Women Make the Best Wines. Naturally.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.iolawines.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iola.wines/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iolawines
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iolawines/

Image Credits
Rachel MB Photography Kate Miller Photography