Photo photo courtesy bu sur le web   Aurélia Filion and a bottle of Macon-Chaintré

 A hefty chunk of my savings has gone into my wine budget since Christmas, and for that I blame Aurélia Filion. Pretty, blonde, funny and sharp, Filion is the face of Bu sur le Web (www.busurleweb.com), a French-language video wine blog produced in Montreal that launched Dec. 1 and is drawing hundreds of hits a day.

The idea is simple: several times a week, the 30-year-old “sommelière” is filmed tasting wines on camera in three- to four-minute High Definition video segments. She uncorks, sniffs, explains, swirls, tastes, spits, describes and smiles (usually) after tasting everything from sherries and Champagnes to Barbarescos and Burgundies. Her enthusiasm is infectious. The first video blog starts out with the greeting: “Je m’appele Aurélia et je trip sur le vin.” After watching her at it, you’ll be tripping on wine, too.

“I was looking for an outlet for my passion,” says Filion in a phone interview from her studio. “I was interested in creating a space to speak freely and honestly about wines, to help people evolve and make interesting choices. I wanted to make people love wines, buy more, and be gutsy about trying new wines. And I wanted to have a voice.”

It was during a vacation in a chalet up north that Filion along with her partner, Alexis Fortier-Lalonde, and friends Andréanne Aubin and Tobie Marier-Robitaille decided to collaborate. The ideas flew before they eventually settled on the concept of a video blog devoted to wine. The chalet retreat paid off. The format is hip, lighthearted and thoroughly professional. In true pro style, Filion, who also occasionally works the floor at Le Club Chasse et Pêche, spits out all the wines she tastes.

Every month, the wine choices are given a theme such as holiday wines, après-ski wines, and this month, “survival” wines for the dark depths of winter. Each bottle is presented, uncorked, poured and tasted for the first time right there for all to watch. Filion’s reactions range from blissful (huge smiles for a “piscine,” a glass of Champagne served on ice) to bewildered (furrowed brow for an especially “green” Chinon). She also shares some information about how the wine is made, a few words about the winemakers, and suggests dishes with which it could be paired. Her style is utterly spontaneous. Nothing is scripted.

When watching the clips, it’s obvious the site’s greatest appeal is its lack of pretension, a word often associated with the intimidating, stuck-up sommeliers who dominate the wine world. That’s hardly the case with Montreal-native Filion. Though her career began in communications, it took a sharp turn during a trip through France, when she found herself picking grapes in Sauternes and hooking up with an oenology student who taught her the basics of wines. The next four years were spent learning, networking and tasting in the wine bars of Paris.

Upon her return to Montreal, she hosted Canal Evasion’s Guide Resto Voir program in 2008 and partnered with Fortier-Lalonde and sommelier Theo Diamantis to open a wine agency called Oenopole (www.oenopole.ca). Some of the agency’s wines are featured on the blog, but Filion makes it clear that the wines chosen must have one criterion: she likes them. All the bottles reviewed are purchased by the site’s team (surprising considering the majority of wine journalists rely on free samples) and all are available at either the SAQ or through private importation.

Don’t expect to see Filion waxing eloquent over Chateau Y’quem or Pétrus or, on the flip side, American giants like Mondavi or Gallo. Says Filion: “I’m not giving a lesson on how to drink a glass of wine and I’m not going for the big labels. I talk about the wines from winemakers whose approach I respect.”

Filion admits an influence on creating a wine video blog came from American wine blogger, social-media fiend and America media darling Gary Vaynerchuk (www.garyvaynerchuk.com). Yet Vaynerchuck’s segments go on for up to half an hour, and the quality of his videos leaves plenty to be desired.

"Strangely, some people in the wine world around me hate Gary Vaynerchuk," says Filion. "I wouldn't say we agree on wines. But his ideas are interesting and he talks about wine in an accessible way."

So far, the response to Bu sur le Web has been “very positive and instant,” Filion says. “People were talking about us right when the first post went up. Even the ‘clique du Plateau’ (Plateau hipsters) liked me.”

That popularity now extends beyond the Plateau to the world, as the blog attracts viewers from France, Denmark, Belgium and Switzerland. The first major article written about the blog came not from a Quebec media outlet, but Geneva’s largest daily newspaper, the Tribune de Genève. And last month, Filion flew to France to collect the prestigious “Prix des Internautes” at the Wine Blog Trophy awards at the Loire Valley Wine Trade Fair, one of the most important wine events in Europe.

Like all web projects, the challenge now is to make the site profitable or Bu sur le Web will not survive. Says Filion: “We film in HD, and there are four of us involved. Costs are going up and up.”

The idea of taking on advertising is being discussed, though she is quick to point out there will never be wine ads on the site. And the possibility of making English blog posts is also being considered (Filion is perfectly bilingual). Filion also ponders the idea of a partnership with the SAQ. With a slight giggle, she adds: “It would be great to see an ‘Aurélia’s Picks’ section in the stores.”