International Women’s Day 2019
To help celebrate International Women’s Day, we thought it would be good to highlight some of the amazing women we work with in the industry.
Wine has not been short of inspirational female role-models; one has only to look to Madame Clicquot of the eponymous Champagne house who is widely credited for creating the first known vintage Champagne, the first blended rosé Champagne and being a dab-hand at marketing by establishing her wines in royal courts around Europe in the early 19thcentury. Even to this day, arguably the most respected voice in the industry is that of Jancis Robinson, who continues to inspire the next generation of women (and men) to learn and develop their craft.
At Ellis Wines, we are proud to work with a number of high-profile women, most notably a burgeoning number of female winemakers. Meet some of the makers below:
Laure Adam – JB Adam
Laure is the 15th generation to work at the family winery making it one of the oldest in Alsace. Their progressive stewardship has seen the introduction of biodynamic principals and a ‘non-interventionist’ regime in the cellar (a natural process of slow pressing, wild fermentations and no filtration) that ensures wonderfully expressive, clean and complex wines.
Marion Deimling – Schubert Wines
There is a pretty big leap from studying viticulture and oenology at Geisenheim University and working in the Mosel Valley to then establishing your own vineyard in Martinborough in the Wairarapa province of New Zealand but that is what Marion and her partner Kai have done. While Kai is the one looking after sales and travelling the world, Marion is the driving force in the vineyard and winery, crafting their alluring, internationally award-winning wines of outstanding character, complexity, balance and grace.
Alicia Rechner – Backsberg
Alicia is the straight-talking winemaker at the world-leading sustainable and carbon-neutral Backsberg winery. Since the winemaking philosophy is “keep it simple stupid” she fits in very well. Winemaking is done with as little intervention as possible, but with Alicia holding the reigns of all the components of the cellar together with the sole aim of directing winemaking to produce wines with a high level of drinkability.
Susanna Crociani – Azienda Agricola Crociani
Susanna is proudly and bravely carrying on the tradition of her forefathers in the family business. She and her brother took over from their father but when her brother sadly died, she was left to singlehandedly keep the historic cellar going. Here she produces not only the famous Vino Nobile of the Montepulciano region but also Vin Santo di Montepulciano, grappa and olive oil too.
Others include Lidia Colosi from Cantine Colosi, Nerea García-Alcubilla from Hacienda el Ternero and Julia Halupczok from Finca Sophenia and Donatella Cinelli Colombini.
