The Rise of Female Winemakers

The most important things we look for when choosing our wines are that firstly, they are all delicious, and secondly that our partner winemakers share our values about sustainability and looking after our planet.

That said, there is a third box which we love to tick if we can.. it probably won’t come as a huge surprise given that we are a women owned business; we absolutely LOVE to shout about and support some of the amazing female winemakers around the world and are proud to have such a wide selection of them on our shelves!

Fanny Sabre said recently ‘20 years ago, showing your femininity as a female winemaker was alien. If you worked outside with your hands, you were expected to be ugly!’ Thankfully, gone are the days where people would doubt the abilities and talents of women in wine, where they would be sidelined to admin and marketing roles. Today women winemakers are not only accepted, but they are celebrated! And why not, as a sex, we biologically have more taste buds than men so naturally make better tasters! Many of our winemakers are the first female generation or more inspirationally, have set up their own wineries and are challenging and changing the styles and practices in their areas.

We wanted to use this space to introduce you to just a few of the fabulous females we work with who push boundaries and make some of the world's most delicious wines.

Bodega Tandem

Fanny Sabre

Fanny is based in Pommard, south of Beane in the east of France. Although winemaking is in her blood, she was studying to be a lawyer when her father passed away in 2001 and she was called back to run the family estate. With natural wine guru Philippe Pacalet by her side her showing her the ropes in the early years, Fanny discovered she not only enjoyed it but was great at it!  She makes amazingly balanced wines with a unique saline character, even in the reds. Her aim is to make moreish wines that make you want to eat and drink – and that they do! All of her wines are made organically and everything in the winery is done by hand.

Samantha O'Keefe 

Samantha’s wine story started in 2000 when she moved to South Africa with her husband and child following a dream of running their own winery. They bought an old dairy farm in Greyton, which while being a very cool area, was not known for its winemaking. After a couple of years of hard graft and another baby, very sadly, Samantha’s husband passed away leaving her to carry on their project and raise their family on her own. She doesn’t come from a winemaking pedigree or have fancy oenology qualifications, but she proved doubters wrong and went on to make some of SA’s best regarding Rhone blends, receiving international praise. It wasn’t all smooth sailing from here, in 2020 a bushfire claimed her entire 16 years' work in 40 mins and with it went her winery, her home and the entire 2019 vintage. She then faced two options, call it quits or start from scratch, she chose to start again – and we are so grateful she did! We are HUGE fans and regularly have one of her wines on by the glass.

Kata & Petra Zsaria

Sisters Kata and Petra have run their family winery in Hungary since the death of their father in 2011. He had initially started the winery as a hobby to ‘escape the monotony of office work’ and found joy in the vines. This is a trait the pair have honored since taking over and try to keep his dream alive in their wines. They are known for experimenting with native, almost forgotten varieties, making stand out wines that reflect true Hungarian styles which has earnt them huge respect, both within Hungary and internationally. In 2018 Kata was named Hungary’s Young Winemaker of the year. 

Kelly Fox

Kelly is one of the most exciting and well-known wine makers in Portland’s wine hub, Oregon. She came from a career in biochemistry to start making wine with her dad in 2007, starting with 100 cases. Today makes around 5500. She is a firm believer in not imposing her idea of what a wine should taste like, instead encouraging the different varietals and parcels to take on their own identity. She describes this as responding to the essence of the fruit, which carry's the essence of the earth that bore it, along with the details of the year (the weather, the stars, and the planets, etc. etc.). It is a risky approach and leaves her vulnerable to bad harvests and often controversial styles, but she has been praised around the world for her trademark wines and beautiful hand drawn labels.

Maria & Lusia De Sousa

Another sister partnership, Maria and Luisa took over their 5th generation winery in the Douro valley, Porto when their father passed away making them the first era of women winemakers in their lineage! Until now the winery had solely made wine to sell to the big port houses such as Crofts, however since taking the reins Maria and Luisa have shaken things up. They continue to sell the bulk of their juice to the houses however they now keep their very best wine back and have released a range under their own name, ‘Viera de Sousa’. They have also started to experiment with making table wines which have proved to be hugely popular – especially here in Frome! As well as their Port range, we stock their ‘Alice’ white and red, named after their aunt Alice who was a teacher – inspiring the workbook style label!

Elizma Visser

Elizma joined the Olifantsberg team in 2015 following extensive winemaking experience; studying Oenology and Viticulture in Stellenbosch and working in France and Italy, before returning home to South Africa. She fell in love with the unique setting of the Olifantsberg’s family-owned estate on the rocky slopes of the Olifantsbery Mountain overlooking the Breedekloof. The area endures huge daily temperature swings and has strong winds throughout the year. With this in mind, she decided to move away Chenin Blanc and Bordeaux blends which were the ‘norm’ in South Africa at the time and instead focused on Rhone varietals. This experimental streak, as well has her style and palate awarded her the prestigious international title of Young Winemaker of the Year in 2021 - making her the first woman to have ever won the acolade.

Rosalia Molina

Rosalia Molina owns and makes wine from one of (if not the!) highest solitude vineyards in Spain. She isn’t from a long line of wine makers like most but has always loved wine, holidays were always chosen based on what she could explore and taste and started studying winemaking as a hobby. When her and her husband decided to embark on their own project, she wanted to do something different. There are so many wineries in Castile-La Mancha all making the same style of wine. They chose a plot in La Manchuela high up in the mountains and bought a little house in the village, moved all the furniture out and used that as the winery for years. All their wines are 100% natural and they are one of only a few wineries in the country making ice-wine.

Alicia Eyaralar

Alicia has long been breaking barriers in the Spanish wine industry, she began her winemaking career in Bierzo - where she was the only female winemaker in the region - before founding Tandem with her business partner Jose Maria Fraile. Alicia’s wines are full of life and sit at the very front of the exciting developments happening in the Navara region. Their winery is also one of the most beautiful spots over looking the Camino way.

Lestrille - Estelle Roumage

We have been long time fans of Estelle’s wines, based in the Entre-deaux-mers in Bordeaux, close to St Emilion she makes modern style Bordeaux wines that have huge personality and are dangerously drinkable. We love her wines for their ability to bring people to Bordeaux who might have pre conceptions that these wines aren’t for them with their deliciously approachable fruit and sense of fun.

Aline Baune

Whilst 2018 may well be Aline first ever solo vintage, she’s no stranger to winemaking in the Cote Chalonnaise. For 15 years she has been heading up the winemaking for Château de la Crée (a domaine based in nearby Santenay) when a few years ago she decided it was time to do it all herself. So when the Buxy co-operative’s lease on 5ha of her families 12ha of Montagny vines came to an end she jumped at the chance. Her 5ha are found in the commune of Saint-Vallerin and are split between Aligote Bourgogne Blanc, Montagny Villages and 1Montagny 1er cru Chazelle. Aline really is just at the beginning of her journey and with her skills and experience, excellent vines as her raw materials, and a modern vision and passion to build and develop her wines we think she’ll take them a long way.