Jan 04: Gallo Family Vineyards’ chief winemaker, Gina Gallo has been chosen as the World’s Most Powerful Wine Woman in 2012, outdoing Jancis Robinson MW, the indefatigable prolific British wine writer and critic. The Top Ten include two women in Asia with the Hong-Kong settled American journalist, judge and educator, Debra Meiburg MW at the 7th spot closely followed by Judy Leissner, the owner of Grace Vineyards in China in the 8th position.
‘The Top Fifty have been ranked according to the extent they are shaping what’s in our glass, from the winemakers making it, to the savvy buyers bringing it to our attention. The variety of different jobs our entrants undertake is testament to the fact that women have conquered and are thriving in all areas of today’s wine trade,’ says The Drinks Business while explaining the selection criteria.
The list includes winemakers, wine producers, legendary winery owners, wine educators and buyers - covering a wide spectrum of the global wine industry. There are bound to be disagreements and there may be detractors but the criticism from the readers of the magazine comes mostly from feminist women. They feel that in the modern day world it does not make sense to focus on women as a separate entity.
‘I’m utterly amazed by this episode; it’s the 21st century and equality and respect of the sexes has been around for quite some time. What on earth are they thinking of at the Drinks Business???’ retorts even a male winemaker.
Perhaps these critics are not aware that women were not recognized or taken seriously in the wine industry barely 30 years ago - interestingly coinciding with the rise of Jancis Robinson, the super-star and reigning queen of the self-made women wine personalities. Even the article acknowledges, ‘since Sarah Morphew Stephen became the first female Master of Wine in 1970, the pace of change has been rapid, and the fact that there are enough powerful women working in wine to warrant a top 50 is a sign of how far the industry has come in a short space of time.’
During my discussions, interviews and chats with several women winemakers and producers in Europe and the US during the last decade, all of them admitted and rued that in the eighties and nineties when they entered the wine industry, women were generally not taken seriously and men would always scoff at them and their capabilities as fine winemakers.
Coincidentally Gina Gallo (1) and Vanya Cullen (28) were in India a few years ago as co-judges in the India Wine Challenge founded and chaired by Robert Joseph. Several others have been to India on more than one occasion for wine promotion or study of the domestic wine industry.
There also seems to be rather uncalled for criticism of the magazine publishing the age of the women (33-80 years). Some women are critical of the model - like pictures of some of the women, which ostensibly have been volunteered by them or taken from their websites. Interestingly, the article has been authored by a woman- Lucy Shaw, who is a senior writer for The Drinks Business.
The critics of the list which is quite interesting to have a dekko might be curious to know that women have had no significant role to play in the nascent wine industry in India so far although Karishma Grover (winemaker at Grover Vineyards), Sneha Rao (winemaker at Big Banyan), Cecilia Oldne (Brand Ambassador of Sula), Dharti Desai (Director, FWM), Sonal Holland (educator and an enrolled student of MW), Reva Singh (founder of Sommelier India) and Rojita Tiwari (editor, Ambrosia) would be potential stake-holders in India’s Most Powerful Wine Women list which will merit a compilation in 10 years.
Here is the list sourced from the Drinks Business Magazines which ran it in 5 installments, unveiling the Top Ten on their website yesterday. Click on each name for details published by the dB.
Compiled with permission from the Drinks Business by Subhash Arora
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