I apologize for the long delay since my last blog posting but I have been on the road for a spat and much of it in South America doing research for my next book, an essential guide to South American wines. The first of two trips this year took me to Argentina’s Mendoza and multiple areas in Chile. There was so much to be excited about on both sides of the Andes that it is difficult to single out one sub-region or a singular varietal. What was perhaps most compelling to me as I went through my reams of notes was the sheer wealth of female winemaking talent that I encountered in Chile.

Now before other countries and their equally talented female winemakers get angered by my singling out Chile, it should be acknowledged how large a percentage they are. Interestingly enough, when I was tasting with Andrea León, the brilliant young winemaker for Casa Lapostelle’s Clos Apalta, she brought to my attention that it hadn’t always been that way. Close to twenty years back when Andrea’s ‘boss’, Alexandra Marnier LaPostelle founded the winery that bears her name, it was clearly a macho world. She was (and is) brave, visionary, and courageous. As are a host of subsequent generations along with Alexandra’s peers- the ‘true pioneers’. It is said that Chile leads every country, except the United States, in the number of women at every level of winemaking and marketing. Thirty-five percent of the enologists, or winemakers, in Chile are women. And those numbers carry over into the Chilean university system, where approximately a third of enology students are women. In Argentina, her neighboring wine producing powerhouse, only 5 percent of the winemakers are said to be women.

The true pioneers- including Cecilia Torres (of Santa Rita and Casa Real), Mariluz Marín (of her own eponymous Casa Marin), Maria del Pilar Gonzalez (renowned consultant for Chocalan and others), and Adriana Cerda (of Meli)- inspired a generation of gifted believers including Irene Paiva (I-Latina), Ana Maria Cumsille (Altair), Laurence Real (Las Niñas) and Carolina Arnello (Portal del Alto). It can’t be understated how this middle generation has taken the torch and paid it forward to encourage the young female talent that is evident in Cecilia Guzmán (Haras de Pirque), Macarena Morandé (Pablo’s daughter and now winemaker of the family winery), Viviana Navarrete (Viña Leyda), Constanza Schwaderer (Bravado Wines), Evelyn Vidal (Kingston), Ximena Pacheco (Viňa Casablanca), Tamara Baeremaecker  (Concha y Toro), Joana Pereira (Bisquertt), Daniela Gillmore (Gillmore) and many more!!!!

If you can read Spanish, Andrea León provided me this very good article that profiles many of the female stars of Chile’s industry.

At least we know when a young girl says she wants to be a winemaker in Chile, her family doesn’t discourage her! Brava Chile.