Women in wine: Breaking down gender barriers

When the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards were held in Melbourne earlier this year, it brought with it celebrity chefs, glamour and a good deal of criticism. Much of that criticism centred on the World's Best Female Chef award, with many arguing that dividing cooking into genders – unlike sports teams – has no justification.

That's the food realm, but what of the wine world? Does the same argument apply? Should we be shining a brighter light on women in Australian wine? There's a lot of great things happening and a lot of legends kicking goals.

The world's only all-female wine awards, Australian Women in Wine, is open to entrants until August 1. The most recent Young Gun of Wine winner is a woman (as is a third of this year's shortlist), and James Halliday's Winemaker of the Year 2017 is another female first.

But having women-only awards of any kind, and even writing about women separately from men, can be problematic. There's a fine line between a self-fulfilling prophecy and promoting a justifiable cause.

The facts

Despite gender-equal enrolments in wine and viticulture courses, women make up less than 10 per cent of the workforce, according to a large-scale Australian study by the Curtin Graduate School of Business.

Off the back of those numbers The Fabulous Ladies' Wine Society surveyed 279 women across all sectors of the Australian wine industry between December 2015 and January 2016. Almost half of the respondents knew or believed they were paid less than male colleagues and one quarter had experienced unfair treatment around pregnancy, maternity leave or children.

Two thirds of women had experienced sexist behaviour at work and one in five believed they had not received equal career advancement opportunities.

The media

At Fred's restaurant in Sydney, Caitlyn Rees is the only woman to hold a position of head sommelier in the Merivale group, which also counts the two-hatted Mr Wong and Est. in its portfolio.

"It's very disarming for a lot of people when they ask for the head somm and I come to the table," says Rees. "I actually think it works in my favour."

Rees says the only time anyone from the media wants to talk to her, it's about being a woman. "Part of me thinks if we stop talking about it, it will actually start to get better."

Is the media making things worse by highlighting gender discrepancies? Jane Thomson, founder of the Fabulous Ladies Wine Society and the Women in Wine Awards, doesn't think so.

"People continue to be made uncomfortable by positive discrimination," she says. "You have to be in the arena in order to have decisions made in your favour, but it requires a change of heart from the entire community. That's men and women."

This year marks the third Women in Wine awards, which celebrate the work of women in the industry. When they launched in 2015 Thomson set an ambitious goal – to pull the plug within five years because there was no further need for them.

Sarah Crowe from Yarra Yering, James Halliday's Winemaker of the Year 2017, says the only time her gender is mentioned is in the media.

"It's unfortunate that it's seen as being extra special for a woman to win. I'm not a female winemaker – I'm just a winemaker. But to pretend that there aren't barriers, obvious or otherwise, in our lives as females, would be a little foolish."

Journalist Jeni Port has been writing about wine since 1979 and sits on the advisory council of Thomson's Women in Wine Awards. "There's no use writing about a woman just because she's a woman," she says. "And there's no use writing about a woman if she's making bad wine."

Still a boys' club

While a cultural shift has already started, there's a long way to go. Winemaker Lou Chalmer is the owner of Clever Polly's, a natural wine-focused bar, restaurant and bottle shop in West Melbourne. She cites an anecdote involving a group of well-known 40-something men in the hospitality industry who regularly take fancy bottles of wine to fancy restaurants. On one occasion, a member of the group asked if Chalmer could come along and the request was met with resistance. She never went.

"There's a boys' club that's all about Burgundy and Barolo," she says. "You never used to have that that in the natural wine scene, but even that feels like a bit of a boys' club now. It's really disappointing."

Sophie Otton, consultant, sommelier, wine writer and former wine director for Rockpool Bar and Grill, says sexism in the wine world is blatant.

"I once had a lengthy conversation with a senior wine industry figure who was overheard a moment later saying that he 'hates chicks with an opinion'. It indicates how silently entrenched such attitudes can be. That said, I have also worked with some really exceptional men who not only helped me get the job done, but have helped get me where I am today."

Jane Lopes was a sommelier at New York's Eleven Madison Park before taking a similar position at Attica in Melbourne. She believes it can be both advantageous and disadvantageous being a woman in the industry.

"I've definitely dealt with a lot of people who have a boys' club attitude when it comes to the wine industry, but I think there are a lot of people who want to hire a woman, who want diversity on their team," she says. "If you prove yourself and have the skills, you're almost more likely to get the job because you're a woman,"

Lopes has only been in Australia four months, but says it feels like there are fewer women in the wine industry here than in the US. Her gender hasn't felt like a hurdle during her career, but she believes that's because she's not scared to speak up.

"My advice to others would just be to ask for what you want. I think women especially are afraid of that," she says. "But you have to back up the asking by working hard and having skills."

Scent of a woman

There are a number of reasons why female representation across the wine industry is dismal, but every interviewee mentioned the challenges presented by starting a family. While James Halliday believes that the "wine glass ceiling" has long been shattered, he acknowledges the industry is far from balanced.

"I would be disappointed if I knew of female winemakers in this day and age who were unable to freely resume work [after childbirth] if they wanted to," he says.

But Josephine Perry, the first woman to win the Young Gun of Wine award in 2016, did feel she couldn't return to work when she became a mum. After managing two Spanish wineries and consulting in the Canary Islands, she moved back to Western Australia after becoming pregnant. "I set up my own business, Dormilona, because I thought, 'No one's going to employ a mum with a small child'," she says.

Something happens during pregnancy that's especially relevant to winemakers, though: senses heighten. A study by the Monell Chemical Senses Center in the US found that women of childbearing age were more sensitive to odours than men. Additionally, according to Brazilian research, women's olfactory bulbs have 43 per cent more cells and almost 50 per cent more neurons than blokes'.

Perry says she made some of her best wines while pregnant and is "tempted to go number three just to get that back".

The solution

Sophie Otton once used the best-person-for-the-job method when hiring staff, but her position has changed. She suggests taking a "Canadian President Trudeau approach" by doing more than "merely encouraging" equal representation in the industry.

"We need to look at achieving around 50 per cent representation and actually act on it – on panels, on boards, within organisations in general," she says. "Constantly keeping half an eye on gender balance should be a default setting, not some kind of heroic or token effort."

Corinna Wright, who is sixth-generation McLaren Vale and runs Oliver's Taranga, believes the key to retaining women in wine is with more mentors and by showcasing success stories. We are on the right track. A new not-for-profit organisation called Women in Hospitality just launched offering that support, and 50 Aussie women are travelling to London in September for a Wine Australia tasting event, where the 2017 Australian Women in Wine awards announcement will also take place.

There's no denying that equal gender representation in any industry is as much the responsibility of men as it is women. And as Wright puts it so eloquently, diversity of all kinds is beneficial:

"If everyone has the same sort of background and experience and is the same age and wears the same suit, they're all just yes men," she says. "The more diversity there is and the more backgrounds – young and old and male and female and whatever else – that's what's going to help our industry as a whole."