It was a man’s man’s man’s world, according to James Brown back in 1966, but the sentiment still holds today. Thankfully, things have changed a lot in the past 40 years and there are many successful women in the wine industry including Margaux’s Corinne Mentzelopoulos (good luck pronouncing that one after a few glasses of claret), Gina Gallo, and Jancis Robinson MW.
Yet the board rooms and wineries are still dominated with men. So, it was nice to ditch the boys for the first women-only Lovewine Professional dinner last night. More than 20 women from the Kiwi wine industry, from a small all-female winery team to representatives from a multinational drinks giant, got together to do a bit of networking, have dinner and enjoy ourselves.
We talked wine (naturally), the recent harvest, social media, setting up a scholarship for women – and, of course, discussed the aesthetic merits of some male winemakers! Ok, that wasn’t so highbrow (rest assured, there was certainly no dancing around handbags) but I’m sure the fellas would end up talking rugby and cars at a Men in Wine dinner. Let’s face it, there’s only so long you can discuss tannins and oak management before you fall asleep in your soup!
