Spanish women rise in winemaking industry
In a profession long dominated by men and a country with a tradition of machismo, Spanish women are suddenly making a name for themselves as winemakers.
"When I started making wine 18 years ago, the only job for women at the bodega was doing the paperwork," says Cristina Mantilla, 44, who makes wines for 10 wineries. "Now, women are starting to wake up."
Enrollment of women in Spain's university winemaking programs has increased nearly 40 percent since 2000. Women are already a force to be reckoned with in northwestern Spain, in an area of Galicia called Rias Baixas that is famous for its crisp, lively white wines. In 1990 only a few women winemakers were at work there; now they run more than half of the region's 198 wineries.
"In famous regions like Rioja or Ribera del Duero, office politics are almost as important as talent, so you have to fight the old guard. In Rias Baixas everyone is young and open to change," says winemaker Alexia Luca de Tena.
Luca de Tena is one of several women winemakers in Rias Baixas who are being heralded by international critics and, perhaps more important, by domestic aficionados for creating innovative white wines as they break down gender stereotypes.
Their specialty is Albarino, a popular, moderately priced white wine heavy on fruity undertones. Its adaptability to a variety of different styles makes it the perfect pairing for dishes from seafood to poultry, and also a versatile template for experimental winemaking. The women of Rias Baixas have taken a grape known for producing simple, summertime table wines and made increasingly complex wines from it—by experimenting with different soil types, using unique maceration processes and blending Albarino with other grape varietals.
"Some in the industry try to insult us by saying the Albarino is a wine only for women," says Luisa Freire Plana, a winemaker at Bodega Santiago Ruiz. "But I think it's a wine that is too complex for some men."
Rias Baixas is one of the youngest Denominacions de Origen in Spain, having received the official wine quality classification in 1988. It's the only Spanish appellation that produces solely white wine. For the last two decades, enterprising young winemakers, many of them female, have used this remote stretch of rural coast where Spain meets the Atlantic as a kind of viticultural proving ground. They've also built a growing international identity for Spanish white wine. In a country known mainly for its muscular reds, like Rioja and Ribera del Duero, creating a niche for the Albarino has been a long fight for equality. And that's just for the grapes.
"Every wine has a moment and this is the perfect time for the Rias Baixas," says Luca de Tena. The wineries of the region, she adds, are flooded with talented young winemakers looking to make their name in a challenging business.
Why have women winemakers succeeded in Rias Baixas? Some of them say it begins with the region's history of hardship and poverty. For generations, men have left Galicia to earn a living at sea, in the factories of Barcelona or abroad, leaving women to tend farms and small vineyards.
"Women had power to direct the family and the home during the absence of men," says Mantilla. "From that they achieved an importance in the society that our generation is making good use of."