Women in Wine Deserve (nay) Command Your Support – Now!
By Alan Goldfarb
May 5, 2022
Some might consider this a stretch; and might say, what does this have to do with wine and/or media relations? It well might be a stretch and it only has to do with wine and PR, tangentially. But I’ve got to say something. I and hopefully you, will also say something. We’ve got to support women. Otherwise, who the hell else is going to do that, in this climate except, of course, women themselves.
In this context, I support Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes; Virginie Boone, Wine Enthusiast; Lisa Denning, Grape Collective; Jess Lander, San Francisco Chronicle; Elin McCoy, Bloomberg; Esther Mobley, San Francisco Chronicle; Deborah Parker Wong, SOMM Journal; Sasha Paulsen, Napa Register. As well as Sara Schneider, Robb Report; Lettie Teague, Wall Street Journal; Lisa Adams Walter, Wine Women Radio; Kim Westerman, Forbes; MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator; and Jessica Yadegaran, Bay Area News Group.
These are all women with whom I’ve worked in my media relations consultancy; while several have been my colleague as a wine journalist. I don’t know their political proclivities, and realize I risk offending some as I include them in this screed; without their prior knowledge or consent. But as I see it – and not being privy to any of their political proclivities – now is the precise moment that all women must be supported.
Additionally, I hold them all up as leaders and figureheads of wine writing, which for decades, have been almost the sole domain of men. They are influential because I believe – as I’ve always accepted as true – women are our only hope for a future. Women I know, are smarter, more competent, more fully realized; and better than, and more empathic than, men.
Which is exactly why women have always been treated as second-class citizens; because men have always been threatened by women; while at the same time, men have always known (secretly to them), that women are far superior. And which is why we’ve come to this moment in our history – not since the Dred Scott decision that gave momentum to slavery – that once again (and almost always), women have taken it in the gut – from men.
Which is why the women delineated here – among countless others – along with a myriad of wonderful, accomplished winemakers, must now be held in the highest esteem.
I remember, perhaps in the early 1990s, that I was among the first wine writers to tell women winemakers’ stories. After several such reports, I recall writing that perhaps in another 10 years, I won’t have to write this story anymore. And that we’d all call them winemakers and not Women winemakers or Black winemakers, or Latinx winemakers. That has not happened. We’re still evolving and still devolving, at once. But in light of this week’s news seeping out of the Supreme Court, I fear that it’ll take another 50 years to put men in their place.