Behind the vine

Megan Hughes - Loella Wine - California, U.S.A.

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

I grew up in the Central Coast in a very agricultural community. From an early age, wine was prominent in my family - you'd have champagne on special occasions and wine at dinner. I noticed that people would bring over wine for any occasion and it really seemed to me that if someone poured you a glass of wine, you had a time of 30min to an hour where you could either be grounded in your reality or completely removed from it. The action of drinking wine was preserving the human experience of interaction and providing comfort to one another. It was something I learned was meant to be respected.

So, a few years ago I wanted to do agricultural and food policy, but I fell into wine and fell in love with it. I fell in love with the tale that wine told about the human experience.

What story does your wine tell?

I make wine for the people. The name Loella is made up. If you separate our 'Lo' 'El' 'La' it just means 'the' in different languages. That's because the way people talk about wine is always “what was the wine we had at the place?”.

Loella is a wine I make for my parents and for everybody else in my life who isn't into wine. It's a porch-pounder. A cheap and juicy, but quality natural wine. I realized that there was no screw-cap, boutique natural wine that hit the shelf at $15 and under and I just didn't think that the market would grow without this option. I wanted my parents and friends to have an approachable, value-add wine that didn't cause a huge headache the next day.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

I always hear people say, “I don't know what to say about this wine, I don't know the right vocabulary”. Wine should move you in your own amorous intent. It's about the experience that you're in. So, for me, the best part about wine is that you don't have to have the vocabulary. You can just say how you feel. If we could move away from how things have to be described and move into describing how they made you feel - like it reminds you of a sunshower and the way the earth smells after - that would make wine more approachable.

The other misconception is about price points. I don't think the tears of baby angels fall on every vintage. I think the idea that one region is single-handedly reinventing the wheel in natural wine is unfair. I'm a happy cog in the wheel and have respect for winemakers who have been making beautiful, delicious, natural wine for 17 generations - whether they're certified or not.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

You aren't going to have a bad day if someone pours you a glass of wine and puts it in front of you. There's a uniting factor in wine. You can see everything that goes into a glass is the perfect intersection of geopolitics, economics, feminism, and intersectionality - it's preserving the human experience.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

I would say don't be intimidated. Whether you're learning at a shop in a small town or you're interning during harvest - do all of it and push yourself out into this world. If you think you can't sell wine, learn to sell wine. If you think you can't make wine, do harvest and trade for grapes. I was really trepidacious, but then I met Pamela Bush and they blew open my world. They told me to ask for my community because my community is out there. You have to push yourself out into it.

Who is a woman that inspired you?

I have two women who I deeply admire in wine and one really big feminist.

The two women are Rosalind Reynolds and Pamela Busch. I love Ros's no-bullshit approach to winemaking. She's a grounded individual who makes really delicious wines. Pamela Busch started WineFare and they have challenged my perception of what it is to be a businessperson in wine and participate by being part of a larger whole. They are a rockstar.

Finally, my dear friend Michael Brughelli. He is the biggest feminist I know and he's a salt-of-the-earth, good human who makes incredible wines. He has taught me absolutely everything I know.

Where can women find your wine?

I recently started my distribution company, but primarily my wine is sold in California. You can contact me directly if you're out of state.