winemaking culture is was’

Hirsch Vineyards (Stannary Wines)

A mere 14% of Californian wineries are led by a woman, but the state’s winemaking culture is decidedly less macho than it once was, with a new generation of women winemakers increasingly making their presence felt. Among the brightest of the new stars is Jasmine Hirsch, who took over as head winemaker at the biodynamic family firm on the Sonoma Coast in 2019 after a serious accident left her father, Hirsch Vineyards founder David Hirsch, paralysed. Hirsch, who had initially been reluctant to take up a career in wine, and had previously worked in finance, had come back to Sonoma and Hirsch Vineyards to take on a sales and marketing role. She has since proved herself equally adept in the winery, maintaining the estate’s elegant house style.

Occhipinti (Les Caves de Pyrene)

If Hirsch took a while to find her metier, Sicily’s Arianna Occhipinti seems to have always had her eyes fixed on a career in wine.

Like Hirsch, Occhipinti was part of a wine family: her uncle, Giusto Occhipinti, is one of the winemakers behind cult Sicilian producer COS. Still, it took no little determination to start her eponymous label when she was just 22, and her distinctive approach and hard work soon saw her feted as one of the stars of the natural wine movement.

Her method – biodynamic farming, natural yeast, low-sulphur – coaxes wonderfully characterful wines from the native Frappato and Nero d’Avola in Contrada Fossa di Lupo, Bastonaca, Pettineo and Bombolieri in Vittoria.

Kelly Washington (Jeroboams Trade)

Some winemakers are good at making very fine wine in very small quantities; others excel at making good, fairly priced wine at very high volume; some only really like to work in the vineyards they call home; some are able to make something interesting and worthwhile wherever they go. Only a very few have the knack of making a go of all the various conditions and genres that their career throws at them, but New Zealand’s Tamra Kelly-Washington is most certainly among them. Having graduated at the top of her class with a degree in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University, Kelly-Washington started out at top Kiwi biodynamic estate Seresin, before spending seven years as head winemaker for a winery in Sicily, and then returning to New Zealand to oversee the birth and growth of Yealands Estate. Now running the show at the boutique producer she founded with her husband, Tamra Kelly-Washington is firmly established as one of New Zealand’s best winemakers.

Produced in association with Doña Paula, imported in the UK by North South Wines