From Excel, search Access database and return all matches to a variable value

Hello. This question relates to using Excel as a front end user interface to view data stored in an Access database. Let's say that I have a database in Access that lists different types of fruit (field 1) and their color (field 2). I would like the Excel user to be able to type a color in an Excel worksheet field A2, let's say "red". Excel would then list all the red fruits in Column C, either via formulas housed in Column C fields or via VBA. I know I could do this by creating a linked table in another Excel worksheet that would display all the Access data and then using a formula such as VLOOKUP to return all the matches, but I'm wondering if it is possible to do this more simply and straightforward without having to first import the entire linked data table into Excel. Whatever solution is suggested needs to work across different versions of Excel (2007-2016) and should be able to look through several thousand records very quickly to find matches. Thanks in advance for the help!