{"id":30093,"date":"2017-09-11T07:32:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T11:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=30093"},"modified":"2017-09-11T07:32:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T11:32:44","slug":"french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018French Corner\u2019 Brings Wines From France The U.S., Including Restaurants In Saratoga"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30094\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30094\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30094\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"850\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc-768x568.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30094\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thomas Grouard Lillelund shows some of the wines he has at his new business, the French Corner. A native of France, he imports wine from that country to be sold in his shop.<br \/>\u00a92017 Saratoga Photographer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">By Margaret MacDonald<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Thomas Grouard Lillelund, a native of France with a passion for wine, has opened French Corner, a small wine importation and distribution company in Saratoga Springs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The company is small but encompasses what Lillelund terms the \u201cart form\u201d of what he does.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">It brings French wines to the U.S. market, focusing on vineyards from well-known and new wine regions<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Having left France 20 years ago, Lillelund and his wife moved from London to settle in Saratoga five years ago to begin the company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">A passion for wine began to express itself around 15 years of age. He said he traveled often and loved visiting the scenic vineyards. Upon moving to the U.S., he sought to establish a smaller production company like those abundant in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">As the only link between customer and winemaker, the French Corner serves primarily restaurants and retail from New York City to Lake Placid\u2014the Hudson River corridor\u2014no further west than Schenectady.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><!--more-->He said the process has three levels: selection, importation and distribution. All the winemakers whose products are being sold are small- to medium-sized, compared to primarily large distributors in the states. The focus is on production in a given wine area. Region-to-region comparisons serve as a benchmark.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe want a wine that has a sense of place,\u201d versus something that\u2019s been changed and modified to suit a broader and less-discerning market, Lillelund said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The fairly elaborate selection process involves intensive reading of reviews; a blind first tasting; and ultimately a visit to France to select products that are outstanding for quality within market price and without regional overlap, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">He looks for makers growing their own grapes on their own vineyard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe bring the makers to the customer,\u201d he said, with things like master classes, tastings, wine dinners and boat shows. He also helps with wine list assessments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The French Corner sells locally to places like to Muzon House, Sperry\u2019s, 15 Church, and Putnam Market, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Its website is www.thefrenchcornerwines.com.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Margaret MacDonald Thomas Grouard Lillelund, a native of France with a passion for wine, has opened French Corner, a small wine importation and distribution company in Saratoga Springs. The company is small but encompasses what Lillelund terms the \u201cart form\u201d of what he does. It brings French wines to the U.S. market, focusing on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":30094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-businesses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>\u2018French Corner\u2019 Brings Wines From France The U.S., Including Restaurants In Saratoga - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018French Corner\u2019 Brings Wines From France The U.S., Including Restaurants In Saratoga - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Margaret MacDonald Thomas Grouard Lillelund, a native of France with a passion for wine, has opened French Corner, a small wine importation and distribution company in Saratoga Springs. The company is small but encompasses what Lillelund terms the \u201cart form\u201d of what he does. It brings French wines to the U.S. market, focusing on [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-11T11:32:09+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-11T11:32:44+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"850\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"629\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018French Corner\u2019 Brings Wines From France The U.S., Including Restaurants In Saratoga - Saratoga Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-11T11:32:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-11T11:32:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/french-corner-brings-wines-france-u-s-including-restaurants-saratoga\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/09\/french-corner-hc.jpg\",\"width\":850,\"height\":629,\"caption\":\"Thomas Grouard Lillelund shows some of the wines he has at his new business, the French Corner. 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