Women in wine: A celebration of female professionals

In the weeks leading up to 8 March, International Women's Day, our inbox is full of offers to interview  female winemakers, winery managers and other wine professionals in general. Wouldn't it be better if this were a 365-day-a-year mission?

Saying that women still have a long way to go in the industry is not a cliché -it’s a reality. While they are present across all areas, from viticulture and winemaking to management, marketing and research, their visibility and access to decision-making roles remains disproportionately low. This is particularly evident in Spain at tastings, wine encounters and wine fairs.

For this year’s International Women's Day, SWL has compiled a selection of articles highlighting the invaluable contributions of female wine professionals. There are many more who do not appear here, but have been mentioned in our site, be it winery reviews, wine picks and social media posts - and those we have yet to meet.  Our tribute is not just a celebration of achievements but a reminder of the road still ahead. It is the best way to honour the strong, determined women who have paved the way for us. Like Pilar Pla Pechovierto of Maestro Sierra, who died on 8 March 2020.

Most of the articles highlight female-run wineries or feature interviews with prominent women in the wine industry. We make a conscious effort to amplify women's voices in our regular coverage, though we have rarely focused of gender as a standalone topic. One exception is our piece Women who are breaking ground in winegrowing, published around this time last year, which explored how viticulture has transcended its traditional male-dominated sphere. It profiled a winegrower (Ascensión Robayna), a consultant (Bárbara Sebastián), a head of viticulture (Natalia Olarte), an estate manager (Clara Herrero), a multi-talented wine professional (Maribel Bernardo) and a researcher (Pilar Baeza).

Women role models

Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier. “Once I won the French titles in 2018, my circle didn’t change their perception about me; it changed in the media and among other professionals that didn’t know me. It also gave me incredible access to a lot of things, but I wasn’t actually the first woman. In the 1980s two women won in the restaurant/sommelier category, but their victory was never acknowledged. These women deserved all the credit because they broke the ceiling and were the real pioneers.”

Sarah Jane Evans MW. “I was working for BBC Good Food when I did my WSET Diploma in 1997 and wine tastings in London were attended by men in pinstriped suits who looked down on me. I felt that I had to somehow justify myself whereas now I just have a little ticket that says MW and that is enough.”

Almudena Alberca MW, the first Spanish woman to join the Institute of Masters of Wine. “I was very lucky to start my career working for a modern company that had hired a female winemaker from New Zealand. I was young and had no family ties to wine, so I had to work very hard. Being a young woman is an issue but when I was in New Zealand I met well-trained professionals who had worked 12 harvests all over the world and still were working there as labourers. I realised how important it was to study and be well-trained.”

Women-led wineries

These are just a few of the wineries we have covered in depth at SWL. They simply wouldn’t exist in their current form without the vision, energy and excellent work of the women leading them.

Maestro Sierra.  Founded by a man who fought against all odds to become a wine almacenista,  it is no surprise that the winery has been shaped by remarkable women unafraid to defy convention. “My mother used to have to go to work accompanied by my 80-year-old grandma. They said that women could not be left alone in a winery with four men”, remembers Carmen Borrego Pla.

Victoria Ordóñez. A leading, knowledgeable voice in southern Spain, she is committed to recovering Pedro Ximénez wites from Montes de Málaga. “We women have dedicated our lives to nurturing, and wine is just that. Wine needs care and attention, just like a human being, and it also changes over time.”

Sara Pérez. Continuing the legacy of Mas Martinet, the winery founded by her parents in Priorat, she co-owns Venus La Universal in Montsant with her partner René Barbier. Pérez is driven by both a passion to recover lost traditions and the need to carve out her own path: "Each generation must be able to interpret things their own way," she says, but not unconditionally.

Victoria Torres Pecis. She is a heroine in La Palma, in the Canary Islands, where farming is full of challenges and disadvantages. “We women have to earn our respect here," Torres says.

Berta Valgañón. At Pretium Viñedos Centenarios (Cuzcurrita del Río Tirón, Rioja), Berta is a bit of a one-woman band. Although she has occasional help with the harvest and bottling, Berta does all the work herself in the winery and in the vineyards, where she owns 10 hectares farmed organically -some of which she planted herself- of nine different grape varieties in Villaseca and Fonzaleche.

La del Terreno. Violoncellist and winemaker, the determined Julia Casado has carved out her own path in natural wine. Her small-scale project in Murcia, in southeast Spain, focused on Monastrell, started with a €35,000 loan to build a tiny modular cellar with prefabricated materials.

Sandra Bravo. She wholeheartedly rejects the notion of her Rioja wines being described as feminine. “I’d rather be invisible and have the wines speak and express the work and passion I put into making them, but I profoundly dislike being categorised by gender. I want to play in the same division as other people and I want people to speak about my wines".

Parès Baltà. Marta Casas is in charge of making all the sparkling wines (DO Cava) and still wines (DO Penedès) of the winery, a portfolio of 20 wines altogether.

Barco del Corneta. This estate is named after the pine forest that lies next to the 5.5Ha vineyard that winemaker Beatriz Herranz and her mother María Antonia Sanz planted in 2008 in Cantarranas, a lieu-dit in La Seca. They used Verdejo cuttings from an old plot in the village. The site was inherited from Beatriz's grandfather. 

Las Pedreras. Bárbara Requejo leads a project shared with his partner Guzmán Sánchez to revive old vineyards in Ávila (Cebreros, Sierra de Gredos).  "There are still possibilities for recovery, but legislation needs to be revised in favour of the people who live in rural areas," she says.

Vignerons de la Sonsierra. Vicky Fernández shares with her partner José Gil all the work, from bottling to pruning, driving the tractor and ploughing. “I have been lucky in that José has always been willing to teach me and to rely on me. He encouraged me to get on the tractor and never minded if I accidentally drove over a vine when I started. He has always trusted me and that has given me the confidence to try everything.”

O Cabalín. Teresa López Fidalgo is in charge of the day-to-day management of this project to recover old vineyards in Valdeorras. “My grandfather always talked about O Cabalín and said that it had the best vineyards in the area for making red wine,” she recalls. 

Bodegas San Alejandro. Yolanda Díaz has been working for this benchmark Aragonese cooperative in Campo de Borja (Aragón) since 1997. She started in the export department and was promoted to management in 2003. “Now we are able to make practically artisanal wines, but we can also make wines with high turnover and volume and similar precision.”

Amaren. “Ángeles was not, as the cliché goes, the great woman who is always behind a great man," explains her son Juan Luis in the prologue to the book Luis Cañas, Labrador de un Sueño, written by Javier Pascual to mark the 90th birthday of the Rioja patriarch, who passed away in 2019. "My mother was the great woman who, side by side with my father, each contributing the best of themselves, helped to lay the firm foundations on which we stand today.”

Doniene Gorrondona. Itziar Insausti is the winemaker and driving force behind this exemplary txakoli winery in Bakio (Bizkaia). A keen explorer of the area’s potential and its grape varieties, Insausti acknowledges that she avoids crossing "the barrier where the wine doesn't feel like txakoli". 

La Gravera. The arrival of Pilar Salillas in 2018 as managing director and winemaker marked a turning point in the recovery of forgotten vineyards in the area of influence of Serra Llarga, en Lleida. Her leadership continues to shape the winery’s commitment to the region’s heritage.