The women of wine (plus some women-made wines you need to try)
Don’t buy into the myth: Women have been an instrumental part of winemaking since its inception. There’s a theory that women may have been the ones to discover wine — being the gatherers in a hunter-gatherer society — but it’s more than that. In ancient times, women were sometimes solely responsible for winemaking since it fell under the household duties along with the cooking. However, in modern times, wine owners and sommeliers are overwhelmingly men. (Only 15% of Master Sommeliers in the United States are women). To cap off Women’s History Month, we are highlighting three women winemakers who are shaking up the industry and making great wine.
A history of women in wine
While there were certainly some badass women rocking winemaking in the ancient world, we’re going to skip ahead to more modern times and cover one of wine’s female founders, Veuve Clicquot. Yes, the champagne you might splurge on to celebrate your promotion is named after an actual woman (though Veuve itself means widow, her name was Barbe-Nicole). Born in 1777, she got into the business with her husband and stood out as a savvy salesperson. After his death is when she really made a name for herself. In addition to spreading her wine to new places (and making a fortune!), she invented the riddling method of creating traditional sparkling wine that’s still used today.
Veuve might top the list of the most famous women in wine history, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention a few others including Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, the Veuve Cliquot of Portugal, who brought her country’s wine to the stage, Queen Victoria who started the trend of drinking sparkling wine in England, and the first American Master Sommelier, Madeline Triffon.
Celebrating women winemakers today
While grabbing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot might feel like a solid way to honor women winemakers, the pricey Champs house is currently owned by LVMH, which is the parent company behind Louis Vuitton and Moet. Instead we recommend taking a look at one of these top women wine crafters who will both give you something truly drinkable and forward the unsung heroes of the industry.
Sun Goddess Pinot Grigio
In addition to earning the title Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige has taken on the wine world and produced something that punches above its pay grade. She says, “‘Sun Goddess’ immediately struck me as the perfect name as it connects my real life, conveys the connection between nature, and the personality of wines I enjoy the most, combined with my style and that of Fantinel.” MJB stated that she loves white wine so she focused on Pinot Grigio, one of the unsung grapes of the white wine world. She partnered with Fantinel in Fruili region of Italy region to make her own Sun Goddess. One more cool thing about this wine — it’s actually a ramato, which means it has some skin contact (more on the different wine shades in this post).
La Celia Malbec
Founded in 1890, La Celia is the oldest winery in the Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina and one of the pioneers of malbec. While its history goes back more than 130 years, they’re truly innovating today with winemaker Andrea Ferreyra as Head Oenologist (read an amazing interview with her). She strives to elevate the style of Argentinian Malbec and bring in her own flair. “I think that women have always been in the business, the issue is that we didn’t have the visibility we do now. We’ve made an extraordinary leap but we’re still far behind. I applaud the evolution but I think we still have more work to do.”
California Black Girl Magic Bordeaux Blend
Lastly, we come to the American west coast and take on a classic. The McBride sisters are from Cali and NZ, so they both grew up in wine regions. In 2005, they partnered together and founded Black Girl Magic which has gone on to make some truly excellent wines. “As the work began, so did their reality as two fierce, female, and forward-thinking leaders in an industry historically defined by tradition and gender,” they tell it. Now, this is the largest black-owned wine company in the US and they make some truly good tasting and moderately priced wines.