No Women among Dan Murphy’s list of local heroes
I exaggerate: Debbie Lauritz from Cumulus gets a mention in the 14-page winery special of the latest Dan Murphy’s April Buyers Guide, but she’s the sole exception. We can be sure that the lift-out’s main purpose is to promote wines that DM sells, so we can’t expect this to be an objective list. Nor do we know if wineries have to pay for their listings in these guides as they do in the guides that accompany the Halliday magazine. That said, the male domination of this list is a breathtaking oversight, and I thank subscriber Helen P for drawing my attention to it.
Louisa Rose, Vanya Cullen and Virginia Wilcox
Whatever the parameters, any list of Australia’s best winemakers is worthless unless it acknowledges the remarkable achievements of winemakers like Louisa Rose at Hill-Smith Family Vineyards. Louisa makes one of Australia’s great Rieslings and has pioneered new grape varieties down under, such as Viognier, and seen that venture through to a mature range of wines made from that variety.
When l asked my search engine about Australia’s Top Winemakers, Louisa came up at the top of a GoodFood list of top winemakers that reflects the views of 100 of their peers. Vanya Cullen of Cullen Wines is also on that list, most likely for taking her parents’ dream to the next level and establishing the Cullen name as an icon along Australia’s most sought after wines.
Virginia Wilcox at Vasse Felix is another quiet achiever who was voted Winemaker of the Year at Gourmet Traveller Wine a couple of years ago. It surprised me that Sue Hodder of Wynns Coonawarra wasn’t on Good Food’s top 10 list, along with her colleague Sarah Pidgeon, given the heroic work thay’ve done at Wynns Coonawarra. Other great winemakers of the tender gender are Kerri Thompson of KT Wines, Sue Bell of Bellwether Wines, Clare Halloran at Tarrawarra, Rose Kentish at Ulithorne and Tash Mooney.
Sue Hodder, Tash Mooney and Clare Halloran
In 2000, Tash Mooney’s E&E Black Pepper Shiraz was awarded ‘Best Red Wine in the World’ at the IWC show in London. In 2005, she started her own business, Natasha Mooney Wine Architect. She now consults to wineries as different as Sidewood Estate in the Adelaide Hills and Mountadam in Eden Valley.
Since I work mainly at the consumer end of the wine market, I don’t know as many winemakers as other wine writers. Please write to me with any winemakers’ names that deserve inclusion here, at Kim@bestwinesunder$20.com.au. And please write to Dan Murphy’s and make them see the shocking bias in their publication.
Checking the wine press on this issue, I found 3 interesting articles:
Wineglass ceiling: how women still struggle for share of the action by Max Allen. The title tells you about the angle of the piece.
Women in wine are pushing open the cellar door by Inga Ting says: ‘More women are working in the Australian wine industry than ever before, but the playing field isn’t even yet.’
National survey reveals damning state of gender equality in the Australian wine industry is from Winetitles Media, and the title is more than a clue to the state of affairs.
Kim