(bright music) - Yeah, I was told I would never be a winemaker.

It would just never, never happen.

- I was the only woman in the room, but it didn't feel like it because I held my own.

- There's nothing that women can't do, but you do have to want to do all of it too.

- You can really start from the bottom and work your way up and change your stars.

- Whether you're gay, whether you're a person of color, whether you're a woman and for me as a young girl, being able to see that, I really think that had a lot to do with me considering from day one that I even could be a winemaker.

- There is space for you.

Not only is there space for you, you can make room for yourself.

- Don't be afraid of the unknown.

- So, this is only the beginning of the celebration of women in wine.

- [Narrator] This evening, Northern California Public Media celebrates women in wine.

Join us as we visit women making history in the wine industry, from a small family vineyard in Sonoma to legendary wineries in Sonoma and Napa counties.

From growers to winemakers to executives, these remarkable women will be showcased exclusively for you.

- [Narrator] "Bay Area Bountiful" is about agriculture.

It's about feeding us.

It's about land and water.

It's about the health of our planet.

It's about stories that matter.

(bright music) "Bay Area Bountiful," cultivate, celebrate, connect.

- [Announcer] "Bay Area Bountiful" is made possible in part by Rocky the Free Range Chicken and Rosie the Original Organic Chicken, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, "Made Local Magazine" and Sonoma County GO LOCAL and through the generous support of Sonoma Water.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Demeine Estates is located in Downtown St. Helena.

Here, Philana Bouvier leads her Marketing Team in representing some of the finest labels in Napa County and across the world.

- I don't know how I did it, to be honest.

It's crazy that I kind of... You put your head down and you work so hard.

And from 17, I started out in the restaurant industry and next thing you know, I looked up and I was 35-years-old running a distributor.

From 17 to 35, it just went by so quick because I took every chance I could to get ahead.

And then from 35 to now, where I'm at today, 10 years later, I'm the president for Demeine Estates.

I mean, it's amazing.

It's been an amazing ride.

Demeine Estates is a fine wine sales and marketing organization.

Demeine Estates represents legacy-owned wineries that have a lot of history behind them.

- [Narrator] Demeine Estates is on the verge of launching a new brand in Napa that makes approachable wine, drafting winemakers from several legacy Napa wineries.

- Brendel is a project that Carlton McCoy created and he wanted to create a wine brand that was fun for the winemakers.

And what makes Brendel so special is that each of the winemakers have a hand in creating a special varietal with Brendel.

And to build out Brendel, 'cause it's really made for the younger consumer, we have a Brendel Wine Bar that'll be opened across the street from the Archer Hotel in Downtown Napa.

(bright music) - My name is Cassandra Felix and I am the Brand Director of Brendel Wines.

We are a brand new label that just launched in the spring.

We are the newest winery under the Lawrence Wine Estates, which is Heitz Cellar, Burgess Cellars, Stony Hill and Ink Grade.

Prior to joining the team here at Lawrence Wine Estates, I was a sommelier at a hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, for a very long time and managed a beverage program.

And when COVID-19 hit, the hotel closed and I decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine of working in production.

So, I moved to Napa to do a harvest internship in 2020 and decided to stay.

- [Narrator] Philana also provides diversity and access to the wine and spirit industry with her Dream It, Live It Initiative.

- Dream It, Live It is an initiative where we are bringing to light organizations to ensure they have a platform for their businesses.

We've picked some initial partners that we're excited to work with and one of them is Tish Around Town, Tish Wiggins.

She's a small business founded and run by, of course, Tish Wiggins of Texas.

- So, tell me a little bit about some of the things that are being grown right here before we even get to the vines.

- Yeah, so we have a ton of different things growing here.

And so, the focus is either feeding pollinators or having edible landscaping so that we can consume it.

It's another way to display the place.

Or we've got biodynamic preps growing here too, so that we can use our own plants in our own biodynamic preps.

And then also a little tea garden.

- Tea garden.

- Yeah, but maybe I can show you some of the plants.

- Yes.

Ooh, I would love to see that.

- I would love to show you the edible flowers, they're my favorite.

- Yes.

Hey, I'm Tish, Tish Wiggins, affectionately known as Tish Around Town.

Tish Around Town is where basically food, wine, spirits and travel meet.

Tish Around Town started as a blog to basically share what was going on around town and sharing my experiences.

In 2018, I obtained my WSET 2, which is the Wine and Spirits and Trust certification.

Initially, I got that certification 'cause I really wanted to personally know more about wine, leading down a road of wine education.

So, I do some wine education, I do some wine writing.

I think that wine can sometimes be a little intimidating.

So, I really want to focus on wine being approachable.

This particular project, the celebration of women in wine is kind of been my baby for a little bit.

I've always wanted to bring a group of people out to Napa, but I also wanted to be able to bring a group of people to celebrate women.

In general, I think that women are sometimes unrepresented in the wine industry and I want to be able to bring a light and be able to showcase and highlight their stories.

This is the very first year, this is the inaugural year.

We will be coming back to Napa next year.

My vision is that we'll be doing probably two groups next year, coming back to Napa.

And then we're going to be embarking on one to two other regions doing the same type of celebration.

So, we're looking to possibly do Paso and Willamette and being able to basically do the same thing in those regions 'cause guess what?

They have amazing women change-makers and winemakers in that region.

So, this is only the beginning of celebration of women in wine.

(upbeat music) - Meghan Zobeck, who's leading in regenerative farming for Burgess, so she's rebuilding a legacy.

Burgess will be celebrating its 50th year next year.

She's a bad-ass!

I mean, she is someone that will always take a risk and she's a beautiful human being.

She's someone that really believes in inclusivity and mentorship and she's just diverse by nature.

And she's also a wonderful winemaker and we're very excited to taste her wines very soon.

- I'm thinking like white gold and then it's kind of chorally pink.

- And then the rose?

- And then this rose next to the purple.

- Yeah.

- And then we'll have the tulips going in next to that.

So right now, we are getting ready to install another portion of our pollinator garden, which we will also be using in me floral arrangements at Burgess.

So, we like everything on the property to come from the property.

It's all just another way to show what the space is capable of.

One of the big things with regenerative farming is you want to increase biodiversity because that helps with increasing soil health, which is a huge focus for regenerative farming.

In addition, having pollinator-friendly plants supports all of the pollinators.

So, butterflies, bees, hummingbirds.

So, you just increase the health of the entire ecosystem, which is really important, not only for the longevity of the vines, but for our planet in general.

Low soil disturbance is a huge part of regenerative farming as well.

There's a lot of elements going into regenerative farming, but low soil disturbance is a major part of soil health.

And so, when you leave plants in the soils permanently, you help sequester carbon.

There have been several studies that actually show that we can decrease the effects of global warming by not tilling.

And last one's purple.

Let's just make sure we got it right.

The reason why I'm so interested in regenerative farming is I believe the quality of the grapes is better and I also don't want a whole lot of inputs from me.

I'd rather get everything from the grapes I can get.

So, if the vines are healthier, we don't need to fertilize and we don't need to spray and we don't need to do those things.

So, when I'm using native ferments, I don't need to add nutrients from a different source.

So I can really highlight the vineyard, which is the thing that makes us most unique in Napa.

I think even as a small child, I was always interested in saving the planet.

I think the entire company and definitely Burgess is very interested in history.

So, we want our vines to last for a long time.

We want them to last far past our time here.

And in order to do that, you can't farm in a bubble.

You really have to take care of the entire environment surrounding the vines.

In addition to that, we just genuinely care about the environment.

So, healthy soils mean healthy vines and healthy planet really.

Yeah, if we have a bunch of extra, we should just pop them in somewhere.

Oh, I actually switched careers to get into wine-making.

I started as a contract negotiator for the Denver Broncos and was helping with the salary cap.

And then I went on a trip to Santa Barbara to go wine tasting.

It was the first time that I had really taken wine seriously or thought that it was more than just an alcoholic beverage and met with a bunch of winemakers out there and just really started seeing that it's an international product, it's a really great way to connect with people.

It brings people together and it's agricultural.

I think coming from the NFL, I came from a male-dominated industry and then came to wine, which, at the time, was also very male-dominated.

I think there are a lot of women stepping up right now in the wine industry, which I love to see.

Don't let anyone tell you you shouldn't be here.

There's absolutely a place for you.

And yeah, just follow your heart, follow your dreams.

There's a lot of young women getting into it right now that are just so impressive.

And passion is what we need in this industry.

So if you have a passion for it, go after it.

The greatest thing about Demeine Estates, we have really progressive leadership, which is so good to see the decision-makers not look like everyone else, not be kind of like your cookie cutter decision-makers that maybe have come before.

So they're welcoming a lot of people into the wine space that maybe have not felt welcome before.

It's the community I want to be a part of.

I don't want everyone to look like me in the wine industry.

What can you get out of that?

So, it makes me so happy to be working with people that are putting people first.

- It's important to just be a support system for young women and to ensure that they can have the confidence and they can be fearless.

And one thing I always say is, if you're not invited to the table, you create the table yourself.

You don't have to be invited anymore.

That means so much, but it's really to allow women to be successful and everyone should want that, right?

It's not a trend (laughs).

Everyone should want that because it's good business and it's important.

And also, we're all human beings.

We have to treat people well and that's very important.

And being able to lead with compassion and kindness and understanding in a diverse nature is extremely important to me.

- [Narrator] From fine wine professionals in Napa county, we traveled to the town of Sonoma where we meet amateur winemaker, Vicky Leff, in her home vineyard.

Vicky and her partner, Bill, are harvesting their fourth vintage of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot noir with the help of some of their neighbors and friends.

(calm guitar music) - Several years ago, a piece of property adjacent to my house became available for a really good price and we decided, in some ways, quite naively, that it'd be really fun to put in a hobby vineyard.

And we were super lucky because a neighbor of ours by the name of Steven Pavy volunteered to sort of mentor us and walk us through the process.

Hey, it's 2042.

- 2042?

- Yap.

- [Male] That is great.

- And not only did he sort of choose to mentor us and walk us through the process, he took three other households under his wing and decided to teach us all how to make wine.

And it's been a really wonderful thing.

We formed this collective where everybody helps everybody.

I'll never forget my first harvest.

It was really magical.

All these people at 6:30 in the morning showed up and it was still somewhat dark.

And we all went down there.

And we're down there and it was a beautiful morning.

And as we're picking the grapes, the sun comes up over the valley and it really kind of was sort of magical, it was lovely.

Well, it's just satisfying.

It's like, one, it's the fruits of all your hard work and it's so pretty and you come and you do it with bunches of other people, so it's communal and you work and accomplish something, but you're also being with the grapes and being with the folks.

- [Male] Want to go down ahead of me?

- Yeah.

- I want to get all of that here, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Do an extra.

Our vineyard's named Litonya.

People sometimes have a hard time pronouncing it, but it's Litonya.

And we thought long and hard about what we were going to name this vineyard.

We really wanted it to have some meaning.

Went back and forth and back and forth about, what are we going to name it?

And so, one day, I was out in the vineyard very early on, this was before we ever harvested, and I found this little, tiny nest.

And we didn't know what kind of nest was this.

And we realized that, after some investigation, that it was more than likely a hummingbird nest and the... We have many, many hummingbirds up here on the hill and they dart around and they're very, very active.

The Miwok Indians are the Indians that settled on Sonoma Mountain, which is where our vineyard is.

And the Miwok word for hummingbird, actually darting hummingbird, is Litonya.

So, once we found that out, we thought, "Aha, that's it."

And so, we're Litonya Vineyards, after the darting hummingbirds in Miwok.

And this year's our fourth year.

It's friends who have interest in making the wine that come out and help you harvest.

So, it's very chatty and it's very social.

And you'll see, this year there was multi-generations that were out there picking.

So, my son was there and his girlfriend was there and then longtime friends and people from different walks of life.

It's really very, very satisfying and it's especially satisfying in the vineyard.

People are assigned different jobs.

So, there's a crew that sort of takes the bins of grapes up to the winery.

- [Male] Very juicy grapes.

- At the end of it all, there's these bins that are filled with these beautiful grapes.

We put them into the truck, the truck takes them to the winery.

We unload them, then we take them and the first thing that they do is they want to weigh them because we want to know how rich we are and how much our bounty is.

And after weighing them, we destem them.

So, we take the grapes and we put them into the destemmer.

It's a machine that Stephen has.

He takes it to all the different houses.

He's very generous with that.

The difference between the Pino and Sauvignon Blanc is with the Pino, you do not press off that same day.

You want the skins to enhance the flavor.

With Sauvignon Blanc, you want the juice that same day.

And so, you press off.

The Sauvignon Blanc takes...

It's a longer day because you're doing more with the Sauvignon Blanc.

So you take it, you destem it, you put it through the machine, then you put it in the wine press.

- We call that free run.

- Free run.

Then you put it to the stainless steel container and it's done and makes for a very long day.

Yep, I see it.

- Is it full?

- No, it's not full.

Frequently, we'll at some point in time after that, take a big break and come have a nice lunch where everybody sits down and we eat and drink and we talk and we laugh and we carry on.

The lunch may be very, very quick, depending on how much work you have to do.

There's something about food and wine and people coming together that is what people are here for.

And certainly, you can have good food and not drink wine, but the whole thing of sort of being together and eating and drinking and talking is a really nice thing.

And it's not since I lived in Italy that I've had the experience of being able to have three and four hour lunches, but we've been able to do that as part of this winemaking group.

(calming guitar music) (bright music) (soft music) - [Narrator] In Healdsburg, we find another unique winemaker who is also a winery owner.

- The White House usher, who's just a wonderful gentleman named Daniel Shanks, met me when I was working in the Tasting Room and he told me he had his dream job in food and beverage.

So, he evidently came back and I spent an hour and a half tasting wine with him.

And he did invite me to the White House, but I had no idea why the White House was ordering my wines.

He got hired by the Clintons and then the Bushes ordered a lot of wine 'cause I get the menus, and the Obamas.

And he said that I had offered to show him about wines and teach him about wines.

And he said, "Obviously, once you knew it was a dream job, you were excited enough about it to invite me back and share your passion with me."

So, he described it as an unsolicited act of hospitality.

I really learned wine-making the old-fashioned way.

I was in a complete apprenticeship environment.

I was hired by a winery to work in the tasting room and to do their sales and marketing and the tasting room so happened to be right by the warehouse at the winery.

So, back in the day, I used to have to call the guys, the winery was way up on a hill and they'd have to come down.

And I remember, a truck driver showing up one day and saying, "Driving a forklift is not gender specific.

I have four daughters and if they would not get on a forklift because they're female, I would be furious."

And I learned how to drive the forklift and it turned out that I was really good at it.

And I eventually was sent up to the winery to forklift barrels and became in charge of production over time.

But it was a lot of very hard work.

The person I worked for was a very, very hard worker and I guess the best way to describe him, not sexist at all, sort of a hippie-type of person in a fabulous way.

And he felt like if I could get the guys to respect me, then I could lead them and he put me in charge.

And I was the first one there in the morning and I was the last one to leave at night.

Sometimes I would work at night to filter wines and to take care of the wines, but I never missed a day of work and I was completely reliable.

And over time, the guys understood that I was working harder than them.

And even to this day, my right hand guy, his name is Enrique, we've been together for 18 years.

And the good thing is that they know that I've done all the work and I have that background with the guys in the cellar.

And so, it's advantageous because I know what they should be doing in the cellar.

I would say to any young woman who is looking at a male-dominated industry, it's very important to remember two things.

You're going to have to work harder, there's no question about it.

And it's important to find a job that is not gender-specific.

I go back to my roots of driving a forklift, but it's the only key job in production that doesn't require a lot of physical strength.

And I think women in the wine industry frequently get placed in lab jobs and other various jobs that don't require physical strength.

But if you can find a role that makes you a key position or at least puts you in a position where you can work up to a key position, then you seriously increase your chances of advancement and success within the industry.

So, this is one of my favorite White House menus.

It's actually something that Michelle Obama did that featured female artists and they included Sheryl Crow, Fran Drescher, Sarah Jones and Alicia Keys.

And they did serve Selby Wines there.

I have a congressional picnic over here.

There was a baby shower once when the Bushes were there.

And my first menu was from Bill Clinton and that was for a reception for the head of the Philippines.

So, there have just been some... Tony Blair had Chardonnay.

So, there are fun things here.

A week ago, a guy who worked for the secret service used to see my wines at the White House all the time.

So, he showed up at my wine dinner and is a wine club member.

So, it's just fun, it's interesting exposure.

(soft music) - [Narrator] From downtown Healdsburg, we travel west to Dry Creek Valley where Lambert Bridge Winery has been making wine for 40 years and counting.

There is an amazing team of women in the cellar led by winemaker, Jennifer Higgins.

- I've been in the business 26 years.

So the journey has definitely taken a few steps and hops around.

But born and raised in Sonoma county, Santa Rosa, which is fantastic.

And so, you kind of grow up around it.

My family was not in wine, but I call my parents enthusiastic consumers.

(jazz music) - The science of how grapes turn into wine, of course, they teach you in school and you learn all that, but the decisions you have to make on the go and all the external factors that you just don't think about in a vacuum when you're reading a book, a textbook, I think are super important.

And I've learned a lot about management from Jen, even that I take with me to my day job, it's not just about winemaking.

I think, as I said, she puts her team first and just has created this great environment where everybody asks questions and Jen's continuing to learn.

She's always willing to try new things and is interested in, for someone who's been in the industry as long as she has, I think has a really open mind to new techniques and just trying out something new, seeing if it works.

- I love all aspects of the job, to tell you the truth.

I love everything from the ground up.

And so, this is new for me because my whole career has been in biology for the last 25 years and mostly marine biology.

So, there's a little bit of correlation with biology and the science and a little bit of the chemistry here, but I absolutely love everything from, like I said, the ground up, walking through the vineyards, seeing what's happening in all the different locations and even within the vineyard itself and all the different swales and different things are happening there, the environment, the wildlife, everything that you see.

And then all the way up until harvest, we're bringing these beautiful grapes in and just seeing what flavors are popping from each different varietal and from each different area.

And then seeing them all the way through harvest, making the wine and then all the way into bottling into the tasting room and then sharing it with people.

It's really easy to share something that I really enjoy.

And by doing this, I'm learning more and more about the process to be a better educator, I guess, in the wine biz.

But I don't really have a focus in one direction 'cause I love all parts of it.

I love all of it.

- I love the science side of it.

And so I have a degree in biochem from Davis.

Never took a wine class while at Davis.

And then I moved to Italy for a couple years because I was poor and had no responsibilities.

People always say, "That's where you fell in love with wine."

I think that's where I fell in love with wine and food and how they work well together.

And then I came back, I was going to med school and I ended up part-time at the Tasting Room at Simi Winery just for the summer.

And Zelma Long was the Director of Winemaking there, CEO and Director of Winemaking and she basically ran the show.

And she had this... Well, if you meet Zelma ever, you'll know that there's a presence.

She's iconic.

I call her the mentor of mentors.

And she is the one that I attribute to just like changing my path hard left from medicine to winemaking.

And then I got a job part-time, well, for harvest in the lab at William Hill Winery.

And I got to work with Jill Davis over there, another iconic woman in the business.

I went over to Clos du Bois, worked with Margaret Davenport over there.

And I've been here, this is my 12th harvest with Lambert Bridge.

It's female-owned.

The senior management team is all women.

It's the joy of harvest.

It's the crazy time.

And everybody, by that point, it's the tail end, you're exhausted.

Your body is physically shot and mentally, you're just barely going through the motions.

If you don't like harvest and you're in the production business, production side of winemaking or of the wine business, you just get out of it because harvest is everything, that's the big show.

Harvest is definitely the big show.

I have an assistant winemaker, Katie, who has a five month old.

So, she's juggling all that.

And then we hired on interns.

I'm hiring the best person.

This year, it just happened to be an all-woman crew for the first time.

And the support and the laughing and the stories that went on during harvest really, it made it just a really fun time and it was a fun vintage too.

If you want to get in the wine business, it doesn't matter your age, even your physical ability.

There is a place for you here.

And it is the attitude, the work ethic, the attention to detail and the desire to do something special, that is what I look for.

I think for somebody who really wants to break into the business, you have to work a harvest.

You have to work a harvest and production and that will open the doors.

Everybody at harvest needs somebody that's willing to work hard to be in their cellar.

So, that's how you get in, I think that's a great way.

Pay your dues, don't expect it to just be handed to you and yeah.

But it's magical, it's great.

(jazz music) (bright music) - [Narrator] Back in downtown Healdsburg, we visit Breathless Sparkling Wines.

Here, three sisters, Sharon, Rebecca and Cynthia, have created a winery that honors the spirit of their mother.

The sisters, along with our unofficially adopted sister, Winemaker Penny Gadd-Foster, offer wines that balance traditional methode champenoise with modern California characteristics.

In keeping with the rituals of champagne, they even offer lessons in sabrage, the ceremonial use of a saber to open a bottle of sparkling wine.

This is a tradition with roots going back to Napoleon and the French Revolution.

(women cheering) The Breathless tasting room features a design based on shipping containers, incorporating Alfresco tasting and a beautifully designed garden.

It also hosts educational, fundraising and wine club events throughout the year, such as the Bootlegger's Bash.

(soft music) (people chattering) - So starting Breathless was really all about our mom and how she created breathless moments in our lives.

And in the end, she passed from a disease called Alpha-1, which is a lung disease, very rare, genetic, and none of us are afflicted with it.

But watching her go from such a vibrant, amazing, athletic woman to being breathless was very, very difficult for us.

But even going through that process, she never took a day for granted.

She never took a breath for granted.

And so, that inspires us every day.

- Every day.

- And I think we try to do that every day, yeah.

I mean, life is to have fun and share and otherwise, why do you want to be here?

(soft classic music) - Napoleon's saying was, "In victory or in defeat, one always needs champagne," and we totally agree.

He would take a saber off his side and break open the bottle.

It's really fun and there's a lot of pressure inside this bottle, which makes it a little bit easier, but it takes some finesse.

Safety first always.

You just gently and follow through and just kind of kick it at the end.

You got this (laughs).

- Thank you.

- All right, I'm standing back.

- Are we ready?

- All right, everybody's safe?

(bottle pops) (people cheer) (bright upbeat music) - I had a conversation with somebody the other day and they said, "Gosh, I never thought about having sparkling all day long."

And I thought, "Why wouldn't you?"

Because that's part of what really makes every day special, are things like sparkling wine and good food and good friends and family.

And wow!

- Yeah, certainly after the past couple of years, I think everyone's sort of appreciating their time and they're appreciating the people around them and just being grateful for what you have, not looking for much more, just being really grateful for what you have.

- For me, I became a winemaker.

Rebecca Faust, Rebecca came in and said, "Gee, we're starting this project and we'd like you to be the winemaker.

"What do you think?"

And I said, "Sure, why wouldn't I?"

So with that, being a part of this amazing family and they kind of took me in and made me one of theirs and here we are.

- She's really our adopted sister.

Her first vocation and love was nursing and being an emergency room nurse.

So, she followed her heart.

- Medicine is very male-dominated.

Winemaking as well.

I kind of started out in the lab and was really told that was as far as I was ever going to get, was being a lab manager.

I remember being told, no, I wasn't strong enough.

We have little, teeny-weeny women out there and they're running circles around a lot of the men out there.

And a lot of that is just the passion that we have for what we're doing.

But we have a passion to do this work and a real aptitude, I feel like, to do the work as well.

Yeah, I was told I would never be a winemaker, it would just never, never happen.

When I became the Executive Director of Winemaking for a winery, for Rack and Riddle, I mean, it doesn't get much better than that.

You can't go much farther than that.

(soft jazz music) (bright music) - [Narrator] From the sparkling town of Healdsburg, we're heading for the border, the Sonoma Napa border, at 2,000 feet atop of the Mayacamas Mountain Range, where winemaker, Sally Johnson, is crafting wine in two counties simultaneously.

- We have such a unique property here at Pride.

We are right at the summit of Spring Mountain in the Mayacamas Mountain Range.

And our property spans the Napa and Sonoma County lines.

So, the county line goes straight through the middle of our property.

And we have two separate bonded wineries, one in St. Helena in Napa Valley and one in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County.

(bright music) So, this is our white wing of our cave.

We have about 20,000 square feet of caves.

And we use this area for our whites because it's chilled.

We can keep the fermentations nice and slow and cool.

With our Viognier, we use neutral barrels.

So, they've been used five to eight times prior to their use in Viognier.

We've used them for Chardonnay.

We want to remove all of the oaky character, but we still want to get the texture of a barrel fermentation.

So the lees, which is the dead yeast, as the wine is clarifying, they're settling down to the bottom.

And then as we stir it, the yeast cells are breaking open and they're releasing mannoproteins and polysaccharides, things that contribute to a texture of thickness.

Adding that richness to the mid-palette is really key for getting the amazing texture that will offset that little bit of grip.

So then we'll just check the brix of this.

And once again, it's nearly finished.

So, it should be fairly low.

And then I always taste them each time.

Chemistry is important in winemaking, but it really is all about how it tastes.

Yeah, and that texture is starting to build.

It's getting that silkiness, very nice.

- I also did a study abroad a year.

I also fell in love with French wine, of course, and French food and cheese.

But I also spent a lot of time on a tiny, little farm in France and I did the vendanges.

And their memory of me was that I did the entire grape harvest in my bare feet.

And that was back in the day where you actually put them into the basket on your back and then went to the end of the row and tipped your basket into the...

So that was really so much fun.

And that tiny, little farm made their own champagne.

So, I used to come home from France with bottles of champagne in my luggage (laughs).

- That's awesome.

- Which was so much fun.

- That's amazing.

- How did you get into wine, Yohanna?

- Oh gosh.

Well, I worked in restaurants to put myself through school.

I didn't actually, like a lot of people, I didn't plan on getting into the wine business.

I wanted to go to grad school and study economics and business and thought I should get some business experience before that and took a wine sales job.

And that was 17 years ago.

- Wow.

- [Yohanna] Sally, you've been here for 15 years, right?

- I've been at Pride for 15 years.

When I was starting out in my career, I was offered jobs in the lab and offered more kind of like the desk work.

And in order to be qualified to be a winemaker, I had to seek out more of the production jobs, the very hands-on jobs, because if you don't develop those skills, then you're not going to really understand the full process.

And I think it's really easy for women to get pigeonholed into what people perceive of as kind of the cleaner jobs and the neater jobs.

- The typist.

- Yeah, exactly.

- The secretary (laughs).

- Marketing.

- Yeah (laughs).

- Yeah.

- So, I think just being willing to go out and do any job that needs to be done is really important.

And I think that working with great winemakers, it's still really a career where there is sort of like a mentorship aspect to it, you know?

So, to build that toolkit with different techniques that you would use and to experience a lot of different situations, different regions of the country and the world.

I think there's nothing that women can't do, but you do have to want to do all of it too.

- Yeah, one of the things that I really love from the wholesale side of things is the comradery amongst women and how we all really work to lift each other up and mentor and reinforce the positive opportunities and shared experiences among the group.

Awesome.

- Cheers, ladies.

- Cheers.

- It's a beautiful day.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Many winemakers will tell you that the magic always starts in the vineyard.

We're headed to Santa Rosa to meet a woman who is president of Sonoma County Wine Growers.

(bright music) - The Grape Growers Foundation was actually relaunched in 2016 with really inspired to really support our ag community and our vineyard workers and their families.

But the program I'm most excited about is, we actually recognize our vineyard workers every month.

So, this is really our Vineyard Worker Wall of Fame, Hall of Fame.

Every month, our local farmers get to nominate one of their vineyard employees in different categories to receive our Vineyard Employee Recognition.

And we put their pictures up on our wall and they actually stay up year-round.

We just celebrated our annual, all of the employees of the year came.

They actually came to our office.

They were able to invite their families, as well as their employers to see them kind of come up and be honored, get a plaque.

They get a $500 gift card.

And then Congressman Thompson actually helped us name our Employee of the Year.

And I think what was so fun is they didn't realize that we had their pictures on our wall.

And so, they showed up with their family and you could just see them pointing to their kids or their parents or their spouse, like "that's where I'm at on the wall," and they didn't even know it.

So, I think just to see how proud they were of the fact that they were being honored and recognized for what they do and it seems like such a simple thing, but actually just bring so much support and so much satisfaction and I love it.

It's actually the favorite thing I've worked on.

Back in 2014, our grape growers here, we have about 1800 local grape growers in Sonoma County.

They made sort of a really big commitment.

It was back before the word sustainable was really in "Vogue."

I think now, we hear it over and over again, which is great.

I mean, I think it's a positive movement, not just for wine and agriculture, but just across the world.

But we made a big commitment to be 100% certified sustainable in all of our vineyards.

It's about really minimizing your impact on the environment.

It's about ensuring you have a viable business year after year, especially for our multi-generational family farmers.

So, I think for all of our grape growers, the foundation sustainability and now we're moving more and more to say, how do we be part of the solution for this global climate crisis we're in?

And I now have a whole team of women working with me and they're amazing.

And it's fun to sort of bring up the next generation.

It's so amazing to work with these incredible women.

We get to work together every day.

We get to spend time thinking about how we preserve local agriculture, support our farmers and promote our region.

And pretty fun to be able to do that with women that I respect and who really care about what they do.

(bright music) Taylor's actually one of my board members.

I love it, she's a young woman in agriculture and really leading and I think such a great role model and example for not just women, but for farming.

They farm primarily wine grapes, but she also, up in Mendocino County, is in charge of the blueberry harvest.

So, she's a diversified agriculturalist herself.

They have been both a real big proponent of both sustainability and also part of our Climate Adaptation Certification partnership.

- We are currently on the old railroad tracks that ran through Sonoma Valley.

And this is... To this day, when we're referencing different parts of the ranch and everything, this is the railroad tracks.

This is Serres Ranch, we're in the heart of Sonoma Valley.

We have been here for almost 100 years.

Well, we've been on the property for longer than 100 years, but officially Serres Ranch in 1924.

I'm fifth generation.

My nephews and nieces are sixth generation on this family ranch.

And so, being environmentally friendly and aware of our surroundings and our habitat, for not only us, but for our vineyards, for the wildlife, is very important.

So, we were one of the first, one of the top 20 vineyard locations that were chosen in Sonoma County for the Climate Adaptation Certification.

And so, with that program, they came out, Laurel Marcus with Fish Friendly Farming came out and ran through all of our farming practices, what we do, what we don't do, maybe things that we could adjust to make us a little bit more climate friendly and it's all based off of carbon sequestration.

One of the nice things about our property, as you can see, these good, old oak trees right here.

We have hundreds of them on the property.

So for that reason, we were able to be one of the top vineyard locations for the amount of carbon that we actually sequester.

Our wine label is new.

We actually came out with our first vintage and it was a 2018 vintage released October of this year.

So, we're really excited about that.

That's a program that my brothers, John and Buck and I, the fifth generation, has started.

The reason that we did this wine is because we want to show the quality of wine that can come from the grapes on our property.

So, kind of taking out that middleman and showing that Sonoma Valley, we've been here for generations.

We're here to stay.

We want to produce the best that we possibly can with our name on it for consumers around the world.

I currently am the Sustainability Chair for the Winegrowers Board.

And the one thing that was always the reoccurring theme was, you're already sustainable, it's just a matter of putting it down on paper.

We didn't have to necessarily change any of the farming practices.

It was just a matter of the type of record keeping that had to be taking place.

It's one of those things that it's very important all the time, creating the habitat for us, the animals, wildlife, and just the aesthetic views of living somewhere where we want to live and you're not ashamed of it.

(bright music) (soft country music) - [Narrator] Our final winemaker works across all of California, making half a million cases of wine a year.

Her team is dedicated to sustainably farming throughout the state.

- Here at Seco Mountain Vineyard, it is...

The whole property is over 2,000 acres, but only about 10% of it is planted to vineyards.

And we really see... Our most important job is to live lightly on the land here and make sure that we're leaving it a better place than it was.

Well, I come from a farming family, citrus ranching, avocados and then beef cattle.

I grew up in Santa Barbara County, so I grew up knowing that there was a wine industry and that presumably one could have a full-time job making wine, right?

When I was a child, one time, we did a tour at Firestone Vineyard, this is down in the Santa Ynez Valley area and I got to meet the winemaker and her name was Alison.

I didn't know anything about the wine business being supposedly male-dominated.

My first winemaker I ever met was a woman and had my own name.

So, immediately I knew that it was a career possibility, right?

There is something so powerful in seeing yourself in somebody that you look up to or that you admire, whether you're gay, whether you're a person of color, whether you're a woman.

And for me, as a young girl, being able to see that, I really think that had a lot to do with me considering from day one that I even could be a winemaker.

Advice I would give people is, think about where you want to go and the kinds of wineries that you might want to work for and really make a point of getting there and doing that work and finding that place.

15 years ago, if you had told me that I'd be doing what I am doing now, a half a million cases, making wine for retailers and folks all over the world, I would have said, "You're crazy," because this is not the traditional way that you think that you're going to be a winemaker when you're a student at UC Davis or when you have those first winemaker stars in your eyes after your first harvest.

- [Narrator] Alison spends a lot her time in the vineyard paying close attention to her fruit as it ripens.

But after the harvest, it's time to taste and blend, with help from her associate, Stacy Vogel.

- I always just say, my goal is to maximize deliciousness, that's my job and that's our job.

And it's really fun to make wine with someone like Stacy who has a great palette, who likes to cook, who likes to eat well.

We have fun talking about food and recipes and how you're making a Thai dish or Indian food and how you would use cilantro.

Well, not in your case (laughs) For the lay person, that's how we look at blending and winemaking, is, oh, well, I'm going to just put a little dab of hot sauce in my chicken soup.

Well, that's what I just did, putting a little petite straw into the Oak Knoll Cab and it adds complexity.

It adds that little extra something.

With blending, you're not trying to fix things.

You're trying to add.

You're trying to add layers.

- Elevate, yeah.

- You're trying to elevate, exactly.

Oh, man.

Fun.

- Delicious, huh?

- [Alison] Yeah.

(soft music) (bright music) - [Announcer] "Bay Area Bountiful" is made possible in part by Rocky the Free Range Chicken and Rosie the Original Organic Chicken, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, "Made Local Magazine" and Sonoma County GO LOCAL and through the generous support of Sonoma Water.

(bright music) (bright violin music)