On International Women’s Day we celebrate every woman who works in wine. Some of the most inspired and innovative vineyard owners and wine makers in history have been women. From the historic ‘grandes dames de Champagne’ to young women today running iconic estates, world-renowned wine critics to generations of women who have worked the same vines, we raise a glass to toast them all on International Woman’s Day.
In just about every key region where investment wines are grown you will find inspirational women who own, direct or work in some of the world’s leading estates with outstanding reputations.
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is still the most prolific regional producer of wines for investment and some of the leading ladies include Corinne Mentzelopoulos, owner of Chateau Margaux. She inherited the First Growth Chateau in 1980 and had the vision to install the late, great wine-maker Paul Pontalier and brought in Sir Norman Foster to redesign the winery, which was relaunched in 2015. Her daughter Alexandra joined Margaux in 2012 and is expected to take over the business one day.
Other women in Bordeaux include Saskia de Rothschild, co-owner of Bordeaux’s most powerful brand, Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Two of St Emilion’s top great Classe A estates are owned and managed by women; the iconic Chateau Ausone’s Pauline Vauthier and Stephanie de Boüard-Rivoal co-owns and manages Chateau Angelus with her controversial father, Hubert.
The Tesseron dynasty are involved in a number of estates with Justine Tesseron co-owner and manager of Chateau Pontet-Canet with her father Alfred. Béangère Tesseron, a trained lawyer, manages Chateau Larrivaux which was founded in 1580 and has only ever been run by women.
Others include Ariane Khaida, CEO of Mouton Rothschild, Lillian Barton owner of Chateau Leoville Barton, Helene Genin – Technical Director of First Growth Chateau Latour and Sandrine Garbay, the famous wine maker of the spectacular Chateau d’Yquem who oversees a team of many women working the estate.
Burgundy
Burgundy’s most famous woman in wine, Lalou Bize-Leroy, has been at the helm of Domaine Leroy for over 30 years, establishing it as the most powerful wine brand in the world. Previously, a co-manager of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and with Aubert de Valaine built DRC wines to be the most highly-prized and valuable in the world.
Champagne
Sparkling wines’ most famous region owes a lot to some great women in the history of Champagne including Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin-Clicquot, Louise Pommery and Lilly Bollinger. Today’s outstanding stars include Vitalie Taittinger, President of Champagne Taittinger, who took on the role from her father in January 2020, at the start of the pandemic. She has commented recently on the effect of the pandemic, “I have become aware of our great responsibilities for the economic welfare of the families who work for us.” She has sustainability high on the agenda in the running of the business, “We are committed to the environment. After all my name is on the bottle.”
Tuscany
Albiera Antinori became the first female president of Antinori, the owner of the Super Tuscan estates Tignanello and Solaia. The former is very much the rising brand of Italy’s five most traded investment wines and sisters Allegra and Alessa are also involved in the business.
USA
As with the European great estates, many women are shaping viticulture and great wines in California’s key wine growing region. Outstanding winemakers include Genevieve Janssens, Director of Wine Making at Robert Mondavi Estate and previously Director of Production at Opus One.
Celia Welch is responsible for Scarecrow, whose debut 2003 vintage was scored 98 points by Robert Parker Jnr in 2006, an achievement only bettered by the iconic Screaming Eagle. With only 400 – 800 cases made a year the 2004 Scarecrow vintage sold out in 16 hours and remains in high demand today.
Wine critics
The world’s most highly regarded specialist critics have the power to influence fine wine prices, levels of trade in the secondary market and in some cases wine production. Of the top ten critics Jancis Robinson MW OBE, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW and Jeanie Cho-Lee are stand-out palates.
Celebrity endorsements
Stars of the big screen and mainstream entertainment own vineyards or endorse wine brands, include Lady Gaga and her partnership with Dom Perignon.
Obviously, we have just scratched the surface, as huge numbers of women are involved in the wine trade, we respect and celebrate them all. Especially today on International Women’s Day
For more information about the great wine estates producing investment wines contact our team on 0203 384 2262.