All month long, we’ve been sampling wines and liqueurs made by women, to celebrate Women’s History Month. And for other reasons too… But, back to the point, here are a few of the remarkable results of their work, helping to shape what all of us will drink in the years ahead.
Cambria Estate Winery in Santa Maria, CA, has an all women team, dedicated to producing exceptional, single-vineyard wines. Winemaker Jill Russell developed Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay, and her 2023 vintage reflects the terroir from this particular region of California, with its temperate marine climate and fertile soils. This wine has a light buttery and oaky flavor, with notes of spice, white flowers and apple, and a long finish. She has crafted a lighter, more feminine version of a traditional California Chardonnay which has dominated the California wine scene for years. The 2023 vintage is a special one because the weather leading up to the harvest was cool, giving the grapes an optimal harvest that represents Cambria and the region.
Did you know that Texas Hill County has its own AVA designation (American Viticultural Area)? This trade association, founded in 1999, has 60 wine growers covering a wine growing region of 9 million acres, the third largest in the US, from Austin to Fredericksburg and Lampasas to New Braunfels. Flat Creek Estate’s sprawling winery is 45 minutes from Austin. With its 18-hole golf course, a restaurant, and ticketed wine tastings, plus a full calendar of events on site, owner Eva Horton has created a premiere destination for wine enthusiasts for a day in wine country. The Estate’s 2023 Palomino is a dry white wine from hand harvested grapes with hints of a floral bouquet, lemon peel and prairie grass. This blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Muscat Blanc captures the region’s terroir—a mix of arid and verdant landscapes in a bottle.
Erica Crawford is a legend in the wine world. Her Loveblock wines celebrate a fresh Sauvignon Blanc profile of the famous Malborough, New Zealand white wines with their abundance of floral notes—a floral bouquet in a bottle. Trained as a chemist, Erica toyed with developing a sulfite substitute because sulfites, an important preservative for wine, are also a turnoff for many people. Success came in 2018, when she introduced a sulfite-free, certified organic Sauvignon Blanc Tee using a proprietary green tea tannin extract, making the white wine slightly less acidic on the palate, with bursts of mandarin zest, quince, gooseberry, basil. An enjoyable not cloying finish. I had the luck of sitting down with Erica a year ago in New York to learn about her viticultural discovery which is, to be honest, groundbreaking.
If tariffs (as much as 200%) for imported wines and champagnes take effect in the US, you’ll want to be ahead of the curve, so make room for Heath Sparkling Wine as a bubbly option. Everything begins at Grape Creek Vineyards where the cuvée (base wine for sparkling wine or Champagne) is made, followed by an in-bottle secondary fermentation (aka méthode champenoise procedures) by Penny Gadd-Coster, who helped Heath win “Best of Class Sparkling Wine 2018” in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Wine Competition. Heath’s Blancs de Blancs has nuanced notes of melon, pear and caramel, with elegant bubbles, a complex palate and a brisk, lingering finish, very similar to many of French non-vintage Champagnes.
Looking to re-stock the bar cart or try something new? Jump on the newest flavor trend that’s pushing the much-loved Aperol Spritz off to the side. It has to do with lemons and the Amalfi Coast.
While Italy was unifying its provinces in the late 1800s, Pallini, the makers of the Amalfi Coast’s iconic limoncello liqueur, was setting up shop. Founded in 1875 and celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, it’s still family run. Micaela Pallini, a chemist with a PhD, took over the business effortlessly and applied her highly nuanced palate (it’s a woman thing!) to refresh her family’s limoncello. Made with the lemon oil from the zest of those gloriously plump, pithy, pesticide-free Amalfi lemons into a harmoniously sweet, zesty elixir, it is an ultra premium liqueur. I sat with Micaela and sampled it straight, and also in a Pallini Spritz made with Prosecco and sparkling water over ice (we had a blast during this tasting!). It is destined to be the new summer cocktail.
And, if you should find yourself in Switzerland on June 8, the wine growing region of Lausanne, in the Jura mountain region, is hosting a day-long event with free tastings featuring wines made by women winemakers. Called La Fête des Vigneronnes, it sounds like the perfect opportunity to mingle with some great minds and wines.
