When I met Caroline Decoster of Château Fleur Cardinale, Caroline warmly recommended we meet Agathe Portail, author of L’Année du Gel: a crime novel about a murder in the heart of a vineyard. While I got hold of her book and read it, here’s this new interview for you. L’Année du Gel isn’t a wine book, but it’s not far off either, since the plot follows a group of friends going on holiday in the heart of a vineyard. Enjoy the listen!
Can you start by introducing yourself?
I’m Agathe, I’m 35 and I have 4 children. We’re in the Entre-deux-Mers. My husband works in wine and I left my career in web marketing to retrain in wine. My husband leans more towards the fine wines. I didn’t take the same path, because what moves me most is the work of the vine done by the farmers. That’s why I ended up working in marketing at a wine cooperative in the Entre-deux-Mers.
I arrived 8 years ago. We’d been told that Bordeaux was extremely closed off, that’s not true. We made friends very quickly. The Gironde is a wonderful place to settle. The literary adventure came during my maternity leave.
Can you tell us more about this cooperative?
The Sauveterre Blasimon Espiet cooperative brought together several cellars. It’s the biggest producer by volume in the Bordeaux appellation and the volume leader in Crémant de Bordeaux. I also handled marketing. One of the big challenges for cooperative cellars is keeping the link with their members. I did a lot of internal communication by interviewing people and making them aware of the beauty of their craft. I worked to make them proud of what they do.
Can you explain how a cooperative works?
A cooperative is producers who come together to pool the means of vinifying the production. They give themselves the means, the oenologists, and a commercial structure to bring the wine to market. At the Sauveterre cooperative cellar there’s a monumental vat hall and all of it belongs to the winegrowers. The proceeds from the sales go towards paying the winegrower.
What’s it like when you arrive?
I knew the farming world in the Mayenne and the way a farmer reacts to a Parisian woman turning up in ballet flats. When you know how to listen to them, they’re incredible people. There’s a real generosity. It astonished me but didn’t surprise me. I was also impressed by the volumes and the millions of bottles that come out of the cooperatives. I realised the work done there is high quality.
Why write a novel?
I’ve always written. I studied a literary track and, since I find it hard to express my emotions, I do a lot of it through writing. The ideas for this novel came to me during the 2017 frost period when I saw the impact it had on the producers. The anguish of wondering how they were going to cope. So I wanted to give a voice to those people.
An episode like a frost has huge emotional potential and therefore huge novelistic potential, which is valuable when you’re writing a story. So I made things up from a few small phrases people said to me, like: “the drama for winegrowers today is the buildings.” Or “personally I think the vine is a magnificent plant, and when I prune I feel like an artist.” These little phrases, put end to end, gave me ideas.
I love reading crime novels because they’re a good way to get messages across. There’s often a subtext in crime novels that’s very interesting.
Can you tell us more about your writing technique?
I drew a lot of inspiration from Joël Dicker and his book “The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair.” Between each chapter, the author gives a piece of writing advice. One of them said: “when you have a good story, don’t write it straight away. Let it bubble away.” I forbade myself from writing for two months even though I had the story. I made diagrams, of course. But for 2 months, I let it simmer. Thanks to those two months, the bad ideas go away and the good ideas form a solid structure. Then I wrote the summary of the story. I built each character on Excel. You absolutely have to invent their likes and dislikes, a profile, a backstory, and so on.
Then I did my sequencing. Still on Excel, I build all the knots on Excel and I’ll have to untie them in the story. You have to work with an invisible architecture.
Do you have a little writing ritual?
I love writing in bed. My husband gave me a stand for writing in bed and I use it a lot.
Can you tell us about your research?
I wrote about what I knew. I’d spent a lot of time in the vines with the winegrowers, so everything to do with pruning, the seasonality of the work, and so on, I was able to observe it. For the winegrowing side I didn’t do much research. On the other hand, I knew nothing about investigation procedure. Luckily I have a friend who’s a gendarme and helped me a lot. I had a desire to make people love the gendarme character, who’s an essential player in rural social life.
I described the landscapes of the Entre-deux-Mers, but I challenge anyone to tell me exactly where Lafontac is. I didn’t want to point to a specific appellation because there are a few stories of wrongdoing in the plot.
The question of economic outlets for winegrowers is very present in your book
In a cooperative, the economic outlets are handled by a sales team. I drew inspiration from a few friends who have their own cellar and have to carry their estate.
I realise I haven’t asked you to present the book. Can you present L’Année du Gel?
L’Année du Gel is a crime novel set in a winegrowing region. We’re going to enter the private life of the Mazet family who, to try to keep the big family château afloat, can no longer make do with the vine’s resources alone. So they take in a group of thirty-somethings who meet up once a year as old school friends. In this group of friends, 10 years after finishing their studies, each has gone their own way and it’s becoming hard to keep the bond they started with. A body is going to be found in the château’s cold room. The investigation will be led by the territorial gendarmerie brigade and Major Demberailh, who’ll have to deal with the challenges of loyalty and of his aunt, who was on the scene at the time of the murder.
These school friends meeting up again, is that something you relate to?
We don’t have a fixed ritual. But what we notice is that 10 years after finishing our studies we’ve all gone in different directions. There are inevitably a few little nods to my school friends.
Wine tourism, is that something you see here?
It’s a great line of development when you’re a tourist area yourself or close to one. The problem with the deep Entre-deux-Mers is that we benefit little from Bordeaux’s aura, it’s too far. Wine tourism is presented as an interesting line of development, but it isn’t suited to everyone and it takes a lot of time. When you’re a winegrower, you can’t do everything.
Have you had feedback from people in the wine world?
I had feedback from the cooperative cellar. They wrote to me: “thank you for talking about us and not about the fine wines.” It was an emotional shock for them to see someone talking about them when they’re often overshadowed. I also had very nice feedback from winegrowers in Burgundy who told me I spoke well about the frost and the anguish they feel. That’s the finest compliment anyone can give me.
Passing things on is also something important in the novel
Passing things on is always complicated. When you’re talking about land, you’re not handing over a car. It’s a transmission that involves the guts. It can go badly or it can be very heavy for the person who has to take over. It’s a very lovely gift, but one that can be poisoned. This question of passing things on comes up for many things that are bigger than us and that go beyond the scale of an individual life.
Can you tell us about the Territoires collection at Calmann-Lévy?
The Territoires collection is celebrating its 10th anniversary and was created by Jeannine Balland. For a long time it was called “France de toujours et d’aujourd’hui.” The collection aims to bring something contemporary into the story of the regions. There’s a renewed reader interest in regional literature. I’d link that quite a bit to the success of certain very regional popular songs. I think it answers a need to re-anchor urban civilisation. The collection is wonderfully rich with some very fine writers.
How does publishing work?
I write the whole manuscript and I sent it off. Three weeks later I got a phone call from the publisher who wanted to rework certain things with me. It’s a wonderful adventure and the publisher’s eye was incredible. I have a novel in proofreading that will come out next year, but it won’t be set in the vines, it’s about start-ups and honey. The one I’m writing right now is set in a cooperage.
What’s true in your book?
The bridges over the Garonne really are made of iron. People really do die in the vats every year. After the frost there were two camps among the winegrowers, those who were completely discouraged and the others who wanted to start over properly. There really were the defeatists and the diehards.
Do you have a wine book to recommend?
I recommend Château Bordeaux to discover wine and especially how the Bordeaux marketplace fits together. The presentation is very playful. To discover the work of a négociant, you can listen to the episode with Emmanuel Coiffe of Eugen Grand Vin.
Do you have a recent favourite tasting?
I drink a lot of Loire wines. I love Auvergne wines. I invite everyone to try Chiroubles, they’re all incredible.
Who should I interview next?
I’d recommend Jacquelin de Pracomtal on his cooperage work and on family successions. I’d also recommend Bénédicte, who’s very friendly and is an oenologist at a cooperative. I’d also recommend Dominique Furlan to find out more about Crémant de Bordeaux and cooperatives.
