Iris Rideau
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Iris Rideau (born c. 1937) is a French Creole winemaker, businesswoman and activist. She is the first Creole-American winemaker to own and operate a winery in the United States.


Early life

Rideau was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, a paternal descendant of Frenchman Armand Allard Gabriel Duplantier who sailed to America in 1777 on
Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...
's ship '' La Victoire'' and established a plantation in Point Coupee, and later the
Magnolia Mound ''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphology (biology), morphological research shows that former genera ''Talau ...
plantation in
Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...
. She grew up in the Creole 7th Ward of the city, where her mother and uncles operated the Creole Bar and Grille. She has said, "There was not a great emphasis placed on education in my community, especially with Creole. Both my father and my mother attended high school, but neither graduated. Her father left the family and departed to California after her parents divorced when she was two-years old." She initially aspired to become a Broadway dancer. Her grandmother moved in and taught Rideau to speak French. In the summer months she visited her father and worked at his ranch in
Corona, California Corona (Spanish language, Spanish for "Crown") is a city in northwestern Riverside County, California, United States, directly bordering Orange County, California, Orange and San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino counties. Its curre ...
, and after several years of insistence that she wanted to live closer to her father, they moved into a one-room flat in eastern Los Angeles when she was 12. Her mother found work at a nearby sewing factory. At 16, Iris she became pregnant and married, only to divorce the father of her daughter, Renee, a year later. She found employment at her mother's factory and enrolled in night classes at a junior college. Rideau has said of her employment at the factory and decision to take night classes, ''"The line of mostly Black and Hispanic women would wrap around the corner in the mornings. We made about $15 a week. I knew I'd need an education or I'd never escape."'' She graduated after a year and began working as a receptionist for an insurance agency, passing as a white woman to keep her job. Rideau married Jimmy Rideau in 1957, and they divorced in 1978. She has since remained single and is a great grandmother. Rideau has said that her drive to succeed as a businesswoman was a result of her natural self-motivating will and the environment that she grew up in. She has said ''"I never want to experience poverty again. That is what drives me. Also, when my daughter was growing up, I wanted to provide her with the security that I did not have as a child."''


Career


Investment banking

Rideau began her entrepreneurial career in 1967 when she opened the Rideau & Associates Insurance Agency, and followed with Rideau Retirement Planning Consultants. She was an involved investment and securities broker in Los Angeles, and became actively involved in seeking better rights for ethnic minorities. Rideau gained much respect in Los Angeles for her activism in the 1960s, and from 1973 to 1976, she was appointed as Chairman to the Mayor’s Affirmative Action Committee, under then-
Los Angeles Mayor The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, both the elections and t ...
Tom Bradley, a job which involved securing employment for hundreds of ethnic minority women in the city. She managed the Rideau Insurance Agency from 1967 to 1999, and in 1982, she established Rideau Securities Firm, and set up two offices with 50 employees.


Wine

Rideau had long been passionate about food and drink when she decided to enter a career as a vintner in 1989. She bought a 6-acre plot of land in
Solvang, California Solvang (; Danish for "sunny field") is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Ynez Valley, Solvang was founded in 1911 and incorporated as a city on May 1, 1985. The population was 6,126 at the 2020 ...
in the
Santa Ynez Valley The Santa Ynez Valley ( Spanish: ''Valle de Santa Ynez'') is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley f ...
that year, and added 24 more acres six years later. This land became
Rideau Vineyard Rideau (French for "curtain") may refer to: In or near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Geographical features *Rideau Canal *Rideau Falls *Rideau River *Rideau Trail Towns and places *Rideau Ferry, Ontario *Rideau Lakes, Ontario *Rideau Street *Rideau ...
two years later. Rideau employed an architect and winemaker to transform an adobe house into a wine tasting centre, with bathroom and kitchen facilities. Rideau sold her insurance agency and brokerage company in 1997. She said of her decision, ''"You know when you get close to retirement you say, 'What am I going to do?' And I said, 'There's nothing to do out in this country other than raise horses or develop a vineyard. And I don't ride horses, so the next thing to do was start a vineyard."'' Rideau is interested in the production of Rhone wines, and produces
Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse ...
, Mourvedre,
Marsanne Marsanne () is a white wine grape, most commonly found in the Northern Rhône region. It is often blended with Roussanne. In Savoie the grape is known as ''grosse roussette''. Outside France it is also grown in Switzerland (where it is known a ...
,
Roussanne Roussanne () is a white wine grape grown originally in the Rhône wine region in French wine, France, where it is often blended with Marsanne. It is the only other white variety, besides Marsanne, allowed in the northern Rhône appellation d'Orig ...
and
Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu AOC, Condrieu in the Rhone Valley (wine), Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'', Third Edition, p. 754, Oxford Univers ...
. ''
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'' magazine has said that she "effortlessly combines delectable grapes from the Rhone Valley of France with the savory taste of
Creole cuisine Creole cuisine (; ; ) is a cuisine style born in colonial times, from the fusion between African, European and pre-Columbian traditions. ''Creole'' is a term that refers to those of European origin who were born in the New World and have adap ...
in her winery." She sold 300 cases in her first year and now produces some 7,500 cases annually and has worked with winemakers Ariel Lavie (2002-2005) and Andres Ibarra (2005-2008) making around $3.5 million a year. Her wines have won the Best in Show in the
Los Angeles International Wine Competition A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages, categories, and/or brands of wine. Wine competitions generally use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges. Types of w ...
. Pamela M. Kalte has stated that her "success in the competitive world of vines and vineyards seems surprising, given that she knew nothing about wines before setting up Rideau."


References


External links


Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rideau, Iris American female winemakers American winemakers American accountants American women accountants Businesspeople from New Orleans African-American activists Living people 21st-century African-American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American women in business 1930s births People from Solvang, California Activists from California 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women Year of birth missing (living people)