Lucie "Lulu" Peyraud (11 December 1917 – 7 October 2020) was a French winemaker and cook.[1]

Biography

Lucie Tempier was born in Marseille to a family of traders in December 1917.[2] Her father, Alphonse Tempier was a leather importer and owner of the Domaine Tempier vineyard and her mother was Eugénie Roubaud.[3] The family had owned Domaine Tempier since 1834.[4]

In 1940, Tempier and her husband, Lucien Peyraud, took charge of a Tempier family farming and wine estate in Le Castellet (Var).[3] The couple kept developing their estate and they and other growers were key in having the Bandol "protected designation of origin" (appellation d'origine contrôlée, AOC) recognized in 1941,[3] and had the ambition of making it one of the great wines of France. By 1943, Domaine Tempier released its first bottled wines of rosé, prior to that selling their wine in bulk to wine merchants.[3]

After World War II, Peyraud traveled the world with her husband to learn about foreign wine and techniques, and to promote French wines. Their travels took them to South Africa, Germany, the United States, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Mexico, and Romania. Lucien Peyraud was the President of the Bandol Wine Association for 37 years from 1945 to 1982. He was also a member of the INAO in 1947 and of the International Organization of the Vine and Wine (OIV), as an auditor in the Oenology Commission.[5]

Despite being the mother of seven children, Lulu Peyraud acted as an ambassador of the wines of Domaine Tempier, often traveling throughout France to present the estate's wines to restaurants and hotels.

Lucie and Lucien repeatedly offered the Tempier Vineyard for the annual Young Cinematography International Meetings (Rencontres Internationales du Jeune Cinéma) in Hyères (1965–1983), as a place for meetings and exchanges for actors and young filmmakers who came to present their films at the festival. In 1983, Lulu participated in the creation of the "Order of the Ladies of the Wine and the Table" (Ordre des Dames du Vin et de la Table), and was its president for three years

Peyraud's typical Provençal recipes earned her a reputation on the other side of the Atlantic amongst well known personalities,[6] such as restaurateur and activist of the "Slow Food" movement, Alice Waters,[7][8][9] food critic and writer Richard Olney,[10][11] writer Jim Harrison,[12] and wine merchant Kermit Lynch.[13][14]

Richard Olney dedicated an entire book to her cooking in 1994, called "Lulu's Provencal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from the Domaine Tempier Vineyard."[15]

Marriage

She met her husband Lucien Peyraud, a viticulturalist, in 1935 whom she met while he was on holiday in Sanary-sur-Mer.[3] They would marry in 1936.[3] They had seven children, Jean-Marie, François, Fleurine, Colette, Marion, Laurence and Véronique.[3]

Death

She turned 100 in December 2017 and died in October 2020 at the age of 102.[16] Lucien died in 1996.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Jeune centenaire, Lulu Peyraud a accompagné l'épopée du vin de Bandol". Var-Matin. January 8, 2018.
  2. ^ Hoffman, Steve. "A tiny Frenchwoman has had a huge impact on food in America" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Asimov, Eric (15 October 2020). "Lulu Peyraud, a French Wine Matriarch, Dies at 102". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b Sciaretta, Gillian (9 October 2020). "Lucie 'Lulu' Peyraud, Matriarch of France's Domaine Tempier, Dies at 102". Wine Spectator. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  5. ^ "Si Bandol AOC m'était conté", by Lionel Heinic 72 pages, Editions Scriba (1992) - Collection: La Provence des Réussites, Série Terroir.
  6. ^ "A pilgrimage to Provence, where Lulu lives," by Sarah Jay, 25 June 1997, The Washington Post
  7. ^ "A tiny Frenchwoman has had a huge impact on food in America," by Steve Hoffman, 12 January 2018, The Washington Post.
  8. ^ "Alice Waters & Chez Panisse: the romantic, impractical, often eccentric, ultimately brilliant making of a food revolution" by Thomas McNamee, published by The Penguin Press, 2007.
  9. ^ "40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering," by Alice Waters (Text), Michael Pollan (Postface), Calvin Trillin (Preface), published by Clarkson Potter, first edition, 23 August 2011.
  10. ^ "Richard Olney: the quiet American who found his soul in Provence," by Tim Adams, The Guardian, 23 December 2010.
  11. ^ "Richard Olney, 71, a Writer Of the Joys of French Cooking," by R. W. Apple Jr, The New York Times, 4 August 1999.
  12. ^ "The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand," by Jim Harrison, paperback 288 pages, Grove Press, 17 September 2002, ISBN 978-0802139375, French version translated by Brice Matthieussent.
  13. ^ "Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France" by Kermit Lynch, september 1990, 288 pages, North Point Press, (ISBN 0374522669)
  14. ^ The Paris Travel Services Interview : "A Conversation with Kermit Lynch," by Terrance Gelenter, 2 December 2016.
  15. ^ "Lulu's Provencal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from the Domaine Tempier Vineyard", by Richard Olney, first edition in 1994 by HarperCollins Publishers, New York, second edition in 2002 by Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, third edition in 2013 by Grub Street, London.
  16. ^ Zemřela Lucie „Lulu“ Peyraud née Tempier

Bibliography

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