2019 has been a historical mile marker for women. In the United States, a record number of women were elected into Congress, and many women are expected to run for office in 2020. The U.S. Women’s soccer team just won the World Cup and broke seven world recordsall the while being paid a fraction of what the men’s soccer team is earning. However, even in these accomplishments, the U.S. is still devastatingly behind other nations in their gender-inclusive politics with fifty-nine.
Agriculture and previously was the executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, shared that in other nations, mothers believe that with proper educationtheir daughters will be given equal rights. However, even though U.S. graduating classes of viticulture and enology are split evenly between male and female graduates, why are less than 10% of winemakers women? Where are all the women?
This post is recognizing and celebrating the ten-percenters who have successfully made a name not only for their business, but have cultivated more opportunities for women in the wine industry around the world.
Helen Masters
In February of 2019, Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazinenamed Masters “New Zealand’s Top
Winemaker.” The creation of her Pinot Noir is an art that she has perfected. Masters graduated from Massey University in 1995 with a degree in food technology and after working in both the US and NZ landed atAta Rangias head winemaker of Martinborough wineries in 2003. Masters was on the Pinot Noir committee in 2017 and will be co-chair in 2021. She has made a small winery into an icon and a must-have wine classic. We celebrate her creative crafting and emphasis of sustainability, fair trade, and organic growing. Ata Rangi has received awards for its dedication to not only sustainably creating wine, but also in helping endangered birds return to their area by planting native fauna.
McBride Sister’s Collection
These sisters grew up believing that they were only children on two separate continents. Robin grew up in Monterey, California and Andréa in Marlborough–one of New Zealand’s wine counties. Before their father passed away he told his siblings that he wanted to reconnect his daughters, so the family hand-wrote wrote letters to everyone named “Robin McBride.” The sisters eventually found each other in 1999 and discovered a mutual passion for wine, and in 2017 the McBride Sister’s Collection began.
The McBride sisters due to both their gender and being racial minorities, do not fit the look of the majority of winemakers in the world. And in order to help more women come into the wine industry, they have created a line of canned wines. Using the platform of SHE CANWines, the sisters are raising scholarship funds for women wanting to pursue a career in winemaking.
Vanya Cullen
Cullengrew up around wine, following in her mother’s footsteps. She continued the family legacy of winemaking at their Wilyabrup Estate in 1983. Part of her work has been experimenting with managing soil and trellis in order for her wines to have rich and complex flavors. Her main focus is on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines, and she has been all over the world judging wine competitions.
Cullen has transformed her family business from the best in her county, to one of the best wineries in Australia. Sustainability and care of the land is a top priority for Cullen as she altered the way her family previously made wine, into a biodynamic, naturally powered, carbon neutral estate. Her advice for women in the wine industry is to “[f]ocus on caring for the earth. There isn’t a great sustainability culture in [Australia]…[b]ut I see that as a nurturing role for women” (Mowery).
The list of accomplishments for Cullen is far too long to list here, and due to that success, she has
been inaugurated into the Australian Business Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015– an honor given only
to outstanding women in their field.
Pauline Lhote
L’Hotegrew up in Champagne, France on a farm bordering vineyards. When she was only fourteen years old, she told her parents that she was going to work in the wine industry –specifically specializing in sparkling wines. At a young age she received an internship at Moët & Chandon in California, and fourteen years and many promotions later, she is now their director of winemaking. Currently she is the lead maker in sparkling wines globally. In May of this year, she was voted into the Top Ten in the food (including beverages) industry. She has been praised as a female leader in a variety of magazines including Glamour, Marie Claire, Nylan, and in Wine Enthusiast’s 2017 40 under 40. L’Hote travels for Chadon branches in Argentine and Australia, speaks at conferences conferences, and judges wine competitions. She is an example of hard working young women changing the industry.
Ntsiki Biyela
Aslina Winesis the first winery in South Africa to be owned by a Black woman. Biyela grew up in an isolated farming village in Kwazulu Natal. After graduating in 1996, she was a domestic worker for a few years and then won a scholarship to study winemaking in 1999. In her career she has partnered with several California winemakers and consulted for Winemakers Collection in Bordeaux, France. In 2009, she was voted top Woman Winemaker and has been a finalist in The Most Influential Women in Business and Government for two consecutive years. Biyela judges wine competitions for SSA Wine Selections, International Wine and Spirit Competition, Nederberg Auction, and many more. In 2017 she was voted in the top twenty of The World’s Most Innovative Women. She is currently on the board of directors for Pinotage Youth Development Academywhich is a program for young South Africans to receive a year long specialty training in order to pursue a career in the wine
industry.
Zelma Long
Longwas a pioneer in California winemaking and has been an integral part of the wine industry for over twenty-five years. Leaving her studies for an internship, she quickly moved up the ranks at Robert Mondavi Wineryin Napa Valley and worked there for nine years. In 1979 she was the first woman to be the senior manager at a California winery at Simi Winery, and from 1989-1996 she was the President and CEO of the company. Long later founded the American Vineyard Foundationto assist her in her viticulture and enology research, later then founding the American Viticulture and Enology Research Network (AVERN). Through her research and work, Long is considered to have the best Merlot grapes in the world. She has now expanded her projects to her owned estates in South Africa and Germany.
Long is a scientist, an author, a business woman, and has received countless awards for her creative and dedicated work in grape-growing and winemaking. She is one of the three women that are in the Vinter’s Hall of Fame.
Resources
There are several new companies that have been created in the past couple of years that are networking women in the wine world as well as hosting retreats and seminars for them. The most recent event was hosted by Women in Wine–Fermenting Change in Oregonon July 8th. Men and women are both invited to these events dedicated “advancing and supporting women” in Oregon.
Another resource for winemakers which is based in California: The Wine Women. Their next seminar is “After the Fires” a panel discussing the destructive California wildfires that hit two years ago. Many more events are happening globally, so check out what events might be near you.
Conclusion
There are women who are changing the world of wine, who are investing in the future of women to come, and who are united for a common cause of helping one another. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability…” but is due to the many hard working women who have faced gender discrimination, perservered, and intiated the momemtum of change.
Here at 360Winery we are proud to have been created by an entrepreneurial woman. Achamma Matthews tirelessly worked against the odds to launch the company and now, 360Winery is working in Australia, Canada and the United States. If you are a woman in the wine industry and want to take your winery to the next level, check out our websiteto see not only how much time and money you’ll save, but you will also be actively supporting women in the wine world.
Further Reading
https://www.aslinawines.co.za/blank-9
https://atarangi.co.nz/the-story/
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/06/politics/women-world-leaders/
https://www.cullenwines.com.au/history/vanya-cullen/
https://crushbrew.com/wine-women-and-subtle-sexism
https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/chandon-winemaker-job
https://www.mcbridesisters.com/contact-home#contact-mcbride-sisters
https://nashvillewineauction.com/zelma-long-international-winemaker/
https://www.nzwine.com/en/media/stories/helen-masters/
https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/facts.php
https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataId=216453
https://www.winemag.com/2019/03/11/six-new-world-female-winemakers-you-should-know/
