Happy International Women’s Day.
It’s a day, set aside to celebrate our amazing and spectacular women, and on social media, the theme for IWD 2022 is #BreakTheBias. What better way to break it than celebrate these great women breaking stereotypes in a male-dominated industry.
We bring to the limelight, 3 superwomen in the wine industry, amongst others.
1. Samra Morris
Samra Morris, the Alma Rosa winemaker, is the first Bosnian woman to craft wine in California, where she bottled her first full grape to glass vintage at her Alma Rosa Winery in California. It truly was a proud moment in the wine industry as she made history for herself and her country. She quoted this experience as, “The Most Exciting Moment Of My Life.”
This turn of event was the starting point for her making a mark, in Santa Barbara County, a wine-growing region in North America, the same estate where wine geniuses Richard and Thekla Sanford also grows.
Samra holds a Bachelors’s and Masters’s degree in Food Sciences from the University of Sarajevo, College of Agricultural and Food Science.
She earlier picked interest in brewing, another outstanding quality about her, but the internship in the enology department at the University inspired her to winemaking. She jokes about being tired of tasting beer.
She attributes her Bosnian root as an inspiration for winemaking, she grew up in a wine-loving family, her father, who is a professor, instilled a tradition of drinking wine and eating good food.
She joined the Alma Rosa team in the summer of 2019 as an assistant winemaker and quickly proved her talents as she was named winemaker in January 2020, Her debut releases 2019 Rose and White wines, and later in 2021, she released a 2019 Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays, and Rhone-style.
2. Zidanelia Arcidiacono
The next on our list is Zidanelia Arcidiacono a Texas-born Winemaker, she moved with her family when she was three to Mendoza Argentina.
Winemaking was the main economic industry in the region, she was surrounded by winemakers and listening to their wonderful stories, hence she developed a greater passion for winemaking.
She began her career working in the lab of Bodega Cruz de Piedra while attending University in Mendoza, after receiving her bachelor’s degree in winemaking, she traveled to the South of France to the Cave cooperative Les Vignerons du Pays d’Enserune, working in the cellar for a harvest.
In 2007, she traveled to the US where she was hired as an oenologist by Sonoma-Cutrer and then at Fetzer Vineyards, where she would become the winemaker for Fetzer Reserve Wines and Little Black Dress.
In 2015, “Z” as she is fondly called was coaxed back by Sonoma-Cutrer where she now crafts Pinot Noirs.
3. Eugenia Keegan
The third on our list is Eugenia Keegan, the California-born and one of the longest active women in the wine industry, she has been around for over 40 years. She started her journey with Joseph Swan Vineyards as a cellar and vineyard worker in 1976, she later went ahead to take on the business managerial position at Bouchaine Vineyards in Napa California around 1982 and was later promoted to president and CEO.
In 2003, she became the Co-founder of Tsarina Wines, a small fine-wine-only distributor.
Throughout her career, she has been an industry consultant and owner of her wine brand Keegan Cellars, which operates in Roussillon, France.
Eugenia Keegan joined Jackson Family wines in April 2013 as a winemaking consultant for Gran Moraine and became winemaker general manager in April 2014 (1 year later) She is currently the Oregon general manager for Jackson Family Wines with oversight of the Oregon Estate Winemaking Programs.