Women’s History Comes Alive at Wine Dinners

By Jake Ten Pas

March is Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day takes place on Wednesday, March 8. In honor of the many contributions still being made to the culture and fabric of life around the world, and because wine is just plain delicious, MAC hosts twice the Wine Dinners of a typical month. On March 9, the club welcomes Day Wines from Dundee, and March 30 closes the month on another high note with the arrival of Remy Wines from Dayton.

In anticipation of these two feasts, which see MAC’s women chefs creating menu items to pair with the local pours, The Winged M invited Deanna Bascom, April Ramos, and Dana Wold to cook up questions for each other and the two featured winemakers, Brianne Day and Remy Drabkin. The latter also was elected mayor of McMinnville this past November, making even more history as the first woman and queer-identifying person to be elected to the office in the city’s history.

Winged M: What advice do you have for women who want to work in a male-dominated field, such as the food and beverage industry?

Deanna Bascom: Be you. You already made a decision to be in a male-dominated field. Decide early on to work and manage in a way you are comfortable with. Balance is key, and you need to be able to be tough but fair, and not in a way that is intimidating, but in a way that allows your team to grow, becoming hard-working and dedicated. You must have individual conversation with each person on your team, get to know them, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to build up those strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Celebrate their successes, as those are yours, as well.

Brianne Day: My advice is, don’t wait for an invitation to a seat at the table. If you want it, take it. No one is going to make it happen for you; you have to believe in yourself, find that courage, and do it. I also wouldn’t wait until you feel like an expert; men don’t. You learn as you go, and you and your business will constantly evolve over time, becoming stronger through that evolution.

Remy Drabkin: Get your grit on. It’s a sad truth, but the chances of being dismissed or overlooked by salesmen, tradesmen, vendors, and peers is common in many industries, including food and beverage. In wine and as mayor, I’m regularly interrupted and have my experience questioned by men. I’ve also dealt with a lot of body shaming and homophobia – especially under the guise of jokes and humor. “Get your grit on” doesn’t mean thickening your skin, it means thinking about and learning how to hold your power in situations and how to preserve your own agency.

April Ramos: The fun and satisfaction of working in the industry come with frustration and disappointment, so prepare yourself — gain knowledge with an open mind and a good attitude. Learn the rules, and play the game well. Pace yourself, and build your physical and mental stamina to survive and outlast.

Dana Wold: Have a voice and use it. You have every right to stand up for yourself and demand respect. Be unapologetically yourself. Always support other women.

WM: Are there any women winemakers, chefs, or others who’ve served as inspirations for you or motivated you to pursue your chosen career?

BD: Elaine Chukan Brown is someone who inspired me right at the start of my career and who continues to inspire me. They aren’t a winemaker or chef; they are an author and wine communicator, and over the years they have had many successful careers. They are Inupiaq and Unangan, Indigenous Alaskan, and grew up in a family of salmon fishers and started their own fishing operation as a young teenager. Much of their career was spent in academia while they raised their child as a young solo parent, which I also relate to. Elaine continues to mentor many in the wine industry and focuses attention on diversity, equality, and social justice issues.

RD: Luisa Ponzi has been a lifelong inspiration and mentor — her wines are, of course, wonderful, but it’s her approach to life that really inspires me. She invests her time and knowledge in those around her, she laughs a lot, and she doesn’t let small frustrations get in the way of being productive. Maria Stuart also inspired me from a young age, bringing me into her kitchen to cook and to share ideas, investing time and love in her family. And my mom, Joan Drabkin, is probably the best chef I know and is so tenacious. I watched her do many things well — write a cookbook, be the first culinary director of the International Pinot Noir Celebration, and put on large community and family meals.

AR: Every single one I’ve met or had the opportunity to know and work with has taught me something. Their successes motivate me to strive for more, and their challenges allow me to learn from them sans the pain associated with them.

WM: What career accomplishment gives you the greatest sense of satisfaction and why?

BD: I am at the point in my career where I can be creative and whimsical, and people seem to respond to and appreciate those attributes. I am a deeply creative person and always have been, and being so brings me so much joy and satisfaction. I love seeing that it also brings those who enjoy my creations happiness.

RD: Some are moments that remind me of the ripple effects of the work I’ve been grateful to do. For example, a young queer winemaker approached me at our grand opening in January and said, “You wouldn’t remember me, but I interviewed with you years ago and you believed in me — you told me where you saw my talent, offered me a job, and said you were sure someone else would snatch me up… but you gave me the confidence in myself to start my brand.” That was deeply meaningful.

I was part of a team that invented carbon-sequestering concrete, which could literally make such an enormous environmental impact that it could change the course of climate change if widely used by industries around the world.

DW: Being an advocate for my employees. I want them to know that I will go to bat for each and every one of them, that they can come to me with any problems, and I will try my best to help them work through them.

WM: International Women’s Day 2023 is all about embracing equity. How have you worked to do that in a professional setting?

BD: I feel like I live in a way that celebrates my own demand for equity and equality — I have advocated for myself since I was a young child being raised in a rather patriarchal and repressive religious community. I’ve never shied away from talking about this or my struggles while trying to make my way through a male-dominated industry, and in doing so I have noticed that younger women have become drawn to me and my business, and I love that. Last harvest, between permanent and seasonal employees, I had nine women working for me and two men. We hired our seasonal staff based on who was most qualified and equipped for the job and received applications from men and women. When we hired the team and sat back and looked at it, I was totally tickled that we had such a high percentage of women working at the winery and it was overall my favorite harvest team to date.

RD: The hospitality industry is overwhelmingly made up of women and people of color, yet our communities are often the least represented in visible food and beverage culture. Historically, marginalized communities have less access to health care, housing, and education through work, and that’s true in wine, as well. These disparities further systems of oppression. Being intentional in supporting minority-owned businesses, whether they’re queer-owned or BIPOC-owned, is elemental. Beyond that, we have ongoing mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training at Remy Wines. Our Queer Wine Fest literally promotes access for LGBTQ+ wine industry professionals to a national audience, and our work at Wine Country Pride continues to bring queer visibility and allyship to rural Oregon.

DW: It has been a huge goal of mine to have a diverse catering team. When I first started at the MAC, there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me that worked here; it has been a passion of mine to change that.

WM: How has traveling — to other countries, wineries, and viticultural regions around the world — shaped who you are, what you make, or how you run your business?

DB: My previous career was as a travel agent. I always loved food and took those culinary experiences into my next career as a chef. I was able to experience leg of lamb in Madrid, classic French pastries and fruits de mer in Paris, chili crab and exotic tropical fruit in Singapore and Indonesia, all the middle eastern cuisines in Israel, and everything Italian, from the north in Bolzano to the island of Sicily. All of these things have made their way onto my menus throughout the years.

Brianne Day of Day Wines

BD: My life has been entirely shaped by travel. When I was just about to turn 19, I traveled in northern Italy, my first journey abroad, with a church group to preach there. Early on in the trip, I discovered wine in a real way, and it put me down a completely new pathway in my life. It stuck with me hard, as did a deep wanderlust, and in my mid-twenties, after six or seven years of working and saving hard, I sold everything I owned and traveled around the world to wine-producing regions to figure out why I had this magnetic pull to wine and where I fit into all of it. I traveled continuously for about two years, reaching over 80 wine-producing regions on five continents, and through the course of the journey discovered I needed to make wine, and I needed it to be created in a specific way — with organic/biodynamic farming, and minimalist winemaking. I came home at the beginning of 2008 and began winemaking classes and continued traveling around, working in the industry. I lived and worked in New Zealand, Argentina, and France for winemaking experience during harvests, and I traveled back to France, Italy, Spain, and South America again and again to discover more about the breadth of the industry and to learn more. Travel is completely linked with wine for me; wine is completely linked with human culture and expression, and all of it is deeply important to me.

RD: I’ve learned about cooperative business decisions, how to set sustainable priorities that have the ability to translate into improved systems, and that I prefer low-alcohol wines (at least at this stage in my life!).

AR: It has always been humbling to see a way of life different than mine. Whether it’s more or less than I am accustomed to.

WM: What is the secret to your success, or what combination of knowledge, luck, passion, privilege, persistence, and talent made you who you are today?

BD: I have been working full time since I was 16 years old, at some points in my life, I had up to four jobs — two full-time, two-part time — at the same time. My father has an incredible work ethic that he seemed to impart to my sister, brother, and myself, and I am very grateful for it. I come from a family of hustlers. I don’t come from money; I didn’t have any financial assistance with setting up my life, and I started my business and my adult life on my own dime. I had the foresight to create a solid business plan and budget/projection early on in my career and really map out what I wanted, and I had the luck of meeting people (I met my backers while waiting tables in a restaurant) who were capable of helping to fund these dreams and propel the business forward. I recognize that coming from a loving family and not experiencing racial discrimination are privileges I have been afforded, and I have gratitude for these things. I think it’s good to recognize the strengths I bring to my own life and the privilege I have through no action on my part. I feel anyone born with privilege has a social duty to level the playing field for others.

RD: I believe in my own ideas, I flesh them out through my various brain trusts, I work hard, and I check myself against my peers and co-workers. I try other people’s ideas, and I’m open to change. I set high goals. I prioritize basic but important health-related activities — drinking water, going for a walk, checking in with loved ones. I make my bed every morning.

DW: I believe I am where I am today because I have been blessed with a privileged life that has given me amazing opportunities. However, I have also worked extremely hard to gain knowledge of my field and kill them with competence! Do an amazing job and succeed despite those who don’t believe in you.