4th March 2024 | Cork Talk | 6 minute read
The title says it all. These are female winemakers and women working in wine who are making their mark on our industry. We talk about great people all year round, but with March being home to International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we’re stepping into spring with our focus firmly on the female pioneers of our ever-evolving industry.
We’re starting our celebration of women in wine who are absolutely crushing it with award-winning female winemaker, Jenny Villalobos (photographed with our wonderful Head of Buying, Sophie Lord, on a recent trip to Chile). Based in the city of San Javier, Jenny is known for making meticulously handcrafted, robust wines with a feminine touch.
When looking for a winemaker to partner with in Chile, Sophie was drawn to Jenny’s classical winemaking training, natural zest for life and keen eye for a particular style of fruit-laden wines that our customers adore. The pair joined forces to craft a bright and lively Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah blend that truly personifies two powerful women in wine coming together to create something special.
Alecia Boshoff is a Cellar Master at Namaqua Wines in the Western Cape. Raised on a farm in Swartland where her grandfather grew grapes for winemaking, Alecia was surrounded by viticulture and nature from a young age. She went on to study Agricultural Viticulture and Enology at the University of Stellenbosch, globe-trot her way across France, USA and Australia to work numerous harvests, and has enjoyed a dream career in winemaking in South Africa ever since.
What makes Alecia’s wines so special is her love of working with nature to create wines that are shaped by their beautiful surroundings and the vineyard’s unique terroir. Her attention to detail has won her countless accolades, yet she measures her success by how many times someone tells her they’ve enjoyed a glass of her wine. Judging by the reaction to her wines at our tasting events, we’d say she’s doing pretty well.
Daughter of Tom and Anne-Marie Hedges, who are big names in Washington State’s prestigious Red Mountain AVA appellation, Sarah grew up around wine and fosters a true homegrown approach to farming and viticulture. The Hedges Family Estate, that she now proudly leads as Head Winemaker, differentiates itself from others in the region with a heavy focus on sustainability and chemical-free viticulture.
Intrigue by the process of fermentation was what initially attracted Sarah to return to her winemaking roots, which took her on a trip down south to explore California’s famous Sonoma Valley. She worked in a winery there for a number of years, before returning to Washington brimming with inspiration and ideas. Since joining the family business in 2006, Sarah has been instrumental in transforming the family’s approach to winemaking, including big plans to convert the estate’s vineyards to biodynamic.
We couldn’t have a blog about inspirational women in our industry without talking about our very own superstar Head of Buying, Sophie Lord. We’ve had the privilege of working with Sophie for a number of years now, seeing her blossom from her customer services role fresh from university to becoming one of our top wine advisors, before going on to join our buying team.
Sophie’s admirable work ethic and passion for wine has seen her achieve many impressive goals, including completing her WSET | Wine & Spirit Education Trust Level 4 diploma, becoming our inhouse WSET Level 2 teacher to empower others who work at Virgin Wines, and graduating from the highly prestigious Champagne Academy that only accepts a small number of students every year. She’s also introduced many customer-favourite wines to our range such as Curious Parallel and, most recently, was named ‘Wine Buyer of the Year’ at the Decanter Awards 2023 (often described as “the Oscars of the wine world”). Basically, she’s pretty amazing!
Collette O’Leary is a female winemaker at the forefront of an English sparkling wine movement that’s seeing a momentous shift in how consumers think of English wine. As Estate Manager and Head Winemaker at Henners winery in Sussex, Collette takes full advantage of the fact the vineyard shares a similar climate to the Champagne region by growing the same grape varieties used in a Champagne blend. Thanks to the temperature and terroir in Sussex, Collette is able to craft outstanding English sparkling wines that have that trademark acidity we usually only associate with Champers.
For Collette, winemaking went from being an interest to a dream career. After years of working in marketing, Collette realised her passion lied elsewhere, especially after travelling the world and working in wineries in New Zealand. She returned to the UK on a mission to make wine her future and enrolled at Plumpton College to study Viticulture & Oenology. Nowadays you’ll find her leading the team at Henners, quite literally living the dream she’d once envisaged for herself.
Beth Forrest is known for her innovative approach to winemaking, not only in New Zealand where she is based, but the world over. Following in the footsteps of her self-proclaimed “mad scientist” parents who have been at the helm of Forrest Wines since 1988, Beth uses ingenious methods that are rooted in scientific theory to produce wines that have a naturally lower alcohol level than a standard wine.
Beth’s wines have 30-40% less alcohol than a standard wine – without compromising on taste or regionality, and this is all through making subtle tweaks to the vineyard (such as pruning three leaves off each vine at a specific point in the growing season to slow the plant’s sugar making capability), rather than by extracting alcohol from wine chemically. We’re sure you’ll agree, it’s impressive stuff!
Rosalia is the Owner and Head Winemaker at Altolandon in Spain, which is one of the highest altitude wineries in the country (sitting at 1,100 metres above sea level, it is at the edge of what is possible in winemaking). Her mission is to make wines that authentically express this unique area of Spain by embracing organic winemaking. By removing any chemicals in the vineyard, Rosalia is able to craft wines that are truly shaped by the terroir, weather and boundary-pushing altitude of her estate.
With the vineyard’s location being so difficult, many thought Rosalia was out of her mind for choosing it. But, confident in her ability, viticultural know-how and vision, Rosalia took on the task of transforming the land into a thriving vineyard. Not only has she achieved this impressive feat, but Rosalia has achieved certified organic status (a process that takes years of hard work) and promotes biodiversity across the estate. Keeping sustainability at the heart of everything she does, her next project is for Altolandon to become 100% natural with zero carbon emissions.
Much like Rosalia in Spain, Nicola Allison is driven by crafting high quality organic wines that embody the region where the vineyard is based and do not harm the surrounding ecosystem. Based in the world-famous Bordeaux region, Nicola owns Château du Seuil with her husband Sean, which they have transformed into a completely organic estate since taking it on in 2001. In a very traditional wine region, Nicola has been key in shifting mentality away from old-fashioned practices to organics and sustainable production methods.
Welsh-born Nicola actually started her career training to be a doctor, before discovering a love for winemaking while living in New Zealand for 12 years. Since relocating to Bordeaux to take over her family’s winemaking estate, Nicola has found that her background in medicine has given her useful insight into healthy viticulture, allowing her to produce chemical-free wines that are naturally shaped by the ancient limestone terroir, as well as a clean environment for her family to live in.
Nadia Engelbrecht is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Having spent her whole career in the wine industry, Nadia started out making wine in world-famous vineyards in Burgundy and California’s Napa Valley, and is now a key member of the revered Perdeberg Group based in South Africa’s Coastal Region.
Alongside her winemaking, Nadia is also CEO of Bulk Wine Centre in South Africa, where she enjoys selling and marketing wine and experiencing the commercial side of the wine industry. Whether she’s making her own wine or working with other suppliers, Nadia promotes equality in the workplace and inspires other women to pursue a career in wine.
Having worked in multiple roles throughout her career in wine, including lab technician, enologist (wine chemist), farm-hand, vineyardist and winemaker, Lisa is a hugely influential female winemaker on the Washington wine scene who has experience in every single step of the winemaking process. Since establishing Ridge of Wonders wine cellars in 2016, Lisa has been putting the Columbia Gorge AVA appellation on the wine map as one to watch.
With a background in chemistry, Lisa uses her scientific understanding and strive for perfection to skilfully craft wines that are vibrant and flavoursome yet delightful delicate. Lisa is inspired by the natural beauty of the valleys and snow-capped mountains that surround her winery, and we can see that in the care and attention that goes into her beautiful wines.
Ana Coutinho was born and raised in the heart of Portugal’s esteemed Vinho Verde region. Growing up in an area where there is so much passion for wine, Ana caught the wine bug early and enrolled at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) to study Oenology, while getting as much work as she could find working for local wineries. Since graduating, Ana has gone on to become Head Winemaker at Quintas do Homem and is seeing her childhood dreams come to fruition.
Ana has been with the team at Quintas do Homem since 2004, and has worked hard to get there. She demands high quality vines and fruit to ensure her team is able to create elegant fine wines that live up to the region’s fierce reputation for good Portuguese wine.
Jess has been integral to the team at Loom Wine in Australia’s McLaren Vale region. A sixth generation winemaker and direct descendant of Thomas Hardy (founder of the famous Hardys Wines), Jess is wine royalty, and has been surrounded by winemaking her whole life. It’s fair to say Jess has developed an intuitive understanding of viticulture, which shows from the array of accolades and medals she has under her belt.
At Loom Wine, you’ll find Jess handcrafting small batch, boutique wines of exceptional quality, as well as collaborating with other vintners across South Australia on bigger projects. Keen to connect with others in her industry and share her winemaking expertise, Jess is undoubtedly an influential winemaker whose passion for wine is infectious.
Last but not least we have Bernadette, who is based in the Washington region. A PhD student at WA State University studying Nematology (plant pathology), you could say that Bernadette is the face of the future in female winemaking. She is focusing her studies on vineyards to understand the relationship between plant diseases and viticulture. Her ambition is to utilise this knowledge to produce the best wines possible, and to educate others in how to “grow better vines for better wines”.
And with Bernadette that concludes our line-up of pioneering women in wine. Here’s to these inspirational women, and to all the other influential women achieving great things in our industry and beyond.
For more information on International Women’s Day 2024, please visit: www.internationalwomensday.com
