Making wines her way

New figures from Vinexpo, the annual wine congress in Bordeaux, show that it’s women who do most of the choosing when it comes to wine. In Britain, eight out of 10 bottles drunk at home are now chosen by the ladies. And not only are they the ones with better palates and noses, at the production end it’s also the female winegrowers who are starting to take charge.

Their reputation has soared in the last decade and there seems to be a definite link between women producers and elegant, refined wines grown in organic soil and served from a bottle that would look just at home in an art gallery. Among the crop of female winemakers are four of the most prominent names within a few hundred kilometres of each other in the south of France. With very different personalities, they all combine frighteningly hard work with a profound knowledge of their craft and a respectful, symbiotic approach to their land.

Excerpt from the August issue of epicure.