Here’s the content of an article I wrote for Seattle Woman Magazine in 2013. So happy to have found it on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20130622214259/http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com/articles/september05-2.htm.

From Grape To Glass, Women Make Washington Wine
by Suzi Beerman

At Seattle-area fine restaurants, it’s increasingly common for the waitstaff or sommelier to place the wine list discreetly within reach of both male and female diners.

Traditionally, men have been given the opportunity to demonstrate their wine-selecting skills – or lack thereof – when dining out. And while old-fashioned etiquette and the perception that men know best may still guide wine lists into men’s hands, women are increasingly stepping up to the task with authority and pleasure.

“Because it is my passion, I have to see the wine list no matter what,” says Marie-Eve Gilla, winemaker at Forgeron Cellars in downtown Walla Walla. “I make a point of making recommendations as well.”

“Statistics say that women buy more wine than men, mostly in retail because women tend to do the home shopping,” reports sommeliere (the proper French spelling for a female wine steward), Dawniel Giebel, of Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar in Bellevue. “At the restaurant, I see a lot more women hosting business dinners and taking the responsibility of selecting and tasting the wine.”

Taking a Leading Role
Whether enjoying dinner at a fine restaurant or measuring the acidity in a fermentation vat at a winery, women in Washington are more involved with wine than ever. “Over the past 10 years there has been an increase in women in many areas, and definitely in winemaking and vineyard ownership and management,” observes Jamie Peha, marketing and promotions director for the Washington Wine Commission and director of the Taste Washington festival. According to the Washington Wine Commission’s latest count, there are approximately 20 female winemakers in Washington State. It’s a small group that is growing along with Washington’s 350-plus wineries and a $3-billion-a-year industry statewide.

Winemaker Gilla arrived in Walla Walla by way of Oregon and France. She earned a master’s degree in both viticulture and oenology from the University of Dijon, in her native Burgundy. Soon after graduating in 1991, she left the tradition-soaked French wine culture for a minimum wage job in the Willamette Valley.

“The problem then (in France) was a perceived notion that a female would not get the job done because of the physical challenges of winemaking,” Gilla recalls. “Most of the available positions were in laboratories, but I did not want to stay in the lab.”

Fifteen years earlier, Kay Simon, now winemaker and co-owner of Chinook Wines in Prosser, faced the same dilemma in the United States. After graduating from the University of California, Davis Fermentation Science program in 1976, she was on the then customary career track for women: working in a laboratory. After a year, Simon knew she wanted to do more. She found a toehold in the life she wanted, landing a job as assistant winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville. “The most difficult part was convincing management at the wineries that women could be as capable, professional and productive as the young men I worked alongside.”

By 1983, Simon and her husband, Clay Mackey, a talented viticulturist, were ready to launch their own winery. About being a woman winemaker, Simon says, “I don’t think most people think it’s that unusual anymore, although they still assume that Clay is the winemaker!”

Being a female winemaker may no longer be the novelty it once was; there were only five in Washington when Gilla got her start in 1992. However, Gilla notes that it is occasionally an advantage. About half the people she meets believe “that if you are a woman in this field, you must be very good at what you are doing. Then people pay a lot more attention to you.” The other half assume she’s in sales and ignore her.

In general, winemakers today are increasingly becoming “like the rock stars and celebrity chefs in America, I’m afraid,” observes Gilla.

“People want to meet the talent – whether it’s art, music, food or wine. That creates a huge emotional tie, and the loyalty factor after having met the producer is long-lasting,” observes Peha, who has seen the wine industry flourish in Washington State over the past decade.

Patricia Gelles, owner and manager of Klipsun Vineyards is the closest thing to a rock star in Benton County wine country. She describes herself as “a little bit out there.” She’s a former Londoner with spiky, fuchsia-colored hair and a reputation for outspokenness. Her personal intensity is matched only by the cult-like status of the wine grapes she grows on 120 acres on Red Mountain, overlooking the Yakima River. Gelles’ grapes garner lots of customer loyalty and typically capture the highest price per ton of any wine grapes grown in Washington. Wine and Spirits magazine named Klipsun as one of the world’s top 25 vineyards.

“People tend to think I’m the girl who doesn’t get her hands dirty,” Gelles admits, “but I do – although these days I’m more consumed by marketing activities.”

There’s a lot more competition selling wine grapes today than there was when Gelles and her husband, David, first bought their land in 1982. Few people understood the land’s potential then, and even fewer had the tenacity to turn hard desert and six tender cuttings from UC Davis into a thriving vineyard. Gelles dug a very deep well and dug in her heels. She hired top-notch viticulturists to guide her vineyard’s growth, and pretty soon her reputation for quality was established. In the 1980s, marketing was as simple as answering a knock at the door.

In starting her vineyard, Gelles found an unlikely calling and has become an advocate for awareness of a wine’s origins. “I want people to understand,” Gelles says, “that the wine comes from somewhere, from the earth, not just from the supermarket shelf.” She’d like people to realize that the quality of the soil and the location of the vines (terroire) are as important as the year the grapes were harvested (vintage) and the winery name on the bottle. Microclimates, minerals, rainfall and changes in the average temperature from year to year all dramatically influence wine’s flavors. That’s literally where many puzzling and whimsical flavor descriptions – musty, leather, barnyard, tobacco, flinty, etc. – are rooted.

While such distinctions and descriptions seem wholesome and real to wine grape growers, winemakers, sommeliers and other wine connoisseurs, the less-indoctrinated consumer can be turned off by it. Competitions, reviews and ratings can add to the wine culture’s aura of complexity and elitism. Even so, wine consumption and appreciation are on the rise. “People are less intimidated by fine wine and spirits,” Seastar’s Giebel reflects. “There’s a lot more interest these days in being a wine geek.”

The Female Perspective
Christine Mayo, sommeliere at The Herbfarm in Woodinville, acknowledges the surging interest and notes a difference in how men and women approach wine. “Men seem to play the numbers game a lot more, asking about ratings and such. I’ve never had a female client ask what score a wine received, which is refreshingly open-minded. The enjoyment of wine is, after all, ultimately subjective not competitive.”

It’s not that women don’t like to compete; many clearly do. Take Olympic Cellars in Sequim, owned and operated by a trio of women. The winery has won accolades and awards for its Working Girl and La Dolce Vida wines. Majority owner Kathy Charlton notes that most “guys are still mired in points, vintages, and varietals,” but easily admits her own keen desire for the winery and winemaker, Benoit Murat (referred to in the company as “the only rooster in the hen house”), to win gold medals and recognition.

Even so, Charlton seems most proud of her laid-back Working Girl wine series and its lack of a traditional pedigree. “Our Working Girl wines blow away the tradition and stuffiness of the industry,” Charlton crows. “The wines are nonvintage, so we can take advantage of the best wine and the resulting blends.” Working Girl White, Go Girl Red, and Rosé the Riveter appeal to entry-level wine drinkers. Accessible, flavorful and priced right, these are wines for a new wine-drinking era.

Better quality boxed wine and low-priced bottles – such as Charles Shaw winery’s “Two Buck Chuck,” priced at $1.99 and made in California – are part of the movement that’s putting more wine on American tables. “This allows more people to enjoy nice wines at a reasonable price,” Gilla responds when asked about the affordable wine trend. “After enjoying these wines, the consumer usually is less intimidated with wine and more daring, more interested in trying wines that are further up the quality ladder.”

Wine-drinking sophistication usually develops over time and exposure, as Gilla indicates. She discovered her love for wine through a love of nature. Gilla harvested grapes for Covey Run early in her career. She spent much of her childhood vacationing on French farm estates, which drew her to a life of sunshine and vines. “I loved the feel of the country where the seasons’ rhythm can be witnessed by watching the plants’ cycle,” Gilla says.

Food First
Sommeliere Giebel’s wine-lust hit more like a bolt of lightning though. She was a 15-year-old exchange student in France’s Loire Valley. “I experienced an amazingly beautiful synchronicity with food and wine,” she recalls. “I had an epiphany over the brilliance of flavors when an acidic wine was paired with venison, and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Food was the gateway to wine appreciation for other noteworthy women in Washington wine as well. Krista McCorkle Davis made her way from learning to cook at the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, to a position as executive director of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance.

During a school apprenticeship at Babette’s restaurant in Sonoma, California, she fell in love with the wine industry. “I tasted a ton. I visited loads of wineries and met some terrific winemakers.” At Babette’s restaurant, Davis first realized her affinity with what restaurant people refer to as the “front of the house” rather than the kitchen, and soon started her career in wine.

Kay Simon was interested in food and nutrition at a young age as well. During a visit to Germany while in high school, Simon’s fascination with food branched off in a new direction when she was exposed to brewing and winemaking. Pretty soon she was immersed in chemistry classes, learning the art and science of fermentation.

The Wine Commission’s Peha has noticed that women working in all aspects of the business “adds another dimension to the industry overall, as women’s palates and feel for what works on a sensory level are more integrated.”

To Giebel, the all-senses approach reflects a growing trend. “In the United States now, we are cultivating a taste for wines that are balanced. People are looking for wines that work in a diversity of settings, that have restrained alcohol levels and less oak, that aren’t overripe fleshy wines.”

While Kay Simon might hesitate to call herself a trendsetter, instead relying on what feels intrinsically right to her palate and sensibilities, Chinook Wine has been delivering balanced flavors for decades. It’s wine style that articulates Simon’s love of Yakima Valley’s agricultural diversity and her gentle nature. “We are making wines that are balanced in terms of their flavor, acidity, and alcohol,” Simon notes. “They’re ready to drink upon release from the winery.”

Perhaps the emerging preference for balanced wine is a backlash against the big, muscular reds that gained popularity in the 1990s. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the growing role of women in the wine industry, from grape to glass. It seems that only great wine should come from those who express such great contentment in their careers.

Labor of Love
For Gelles, whose six grape varietals are sold to 25 wineries, creating a quality product that lends so much character to so many wines is a delight. “It is so satisfying,” she explains, “to sell our grapes to all these different wineries and see the different things each one does with them.”

As one who spends her days teasing out the complexity and richness of the grapes to create fine wines, Marie-Eve Gilla is at ease in the winemaker’s life. Her work requires her to tap into all of her individual resources – sensitivity, scientific acuity, artistry, ingenuity, and business sense. “In wine there are few truths, and many opinions,” Gilla reflects. “There is no excuse to make a flawed wine, but there are many opportunities to showcase wines with a soul and a style.”

Showcasing excellent wines is Giebel’s passion. She’s happy not only to be working in her dream job, but also to be employed in the Northwest. Despite being certified as a sommeliere by two of the top organizations in the world – International Sommelier Guild in Canada and the Court of the Master in London – Giebel is still sometimes mistaken for the restaurant hostess. Even so, she feels that “We’re really lucky in Seattle because we take for granted how progressive it is. I have never had an experience where people assumed I was too young or ineffective to do the job.”

Kay Simon proudly reports that wine is her first and only career. “I feel lucky that after almost 30 years in this industry, I still enjoy my work and the people I get to interact with – both industry folks and the people we meet in the market and in our tasting room.”

Kathy Charlton spent 25 years in the semiconductor business before buying Olympic Cellars. She thought at first it would be a passive investment, but now laughs at that notion. If the character on her Go Girl Red label suddenly came to life, she’d sound a lot like Charlton encouraging women to be part of the wine industry. “Go for it! There is nothing holding you back,” she advises. “Volunteer, intern, get experience, and travel/work in the different wine regions. Get a minor in business, and work every aspect of the industry. Take risks, and above all enjoy your work and have fun!”

Suzi Hedrick Beerman is a freelance journalist and a communications consultant at Microsoft. She enjoys Washington wines with her husband, Gary. They live in Newcastle, with their son, Alec, who could say “Cabernet Sauvignon” by the time he was two.

©2005 Caliope Publishing Company