Baja California’s women winemakers are redefining the craft: Here’s how

hace 1 mes 29

Things are going good for women’s practice successful Mexico recently, with the archetypal pistillate president, second pistillate politician of Mexico City and historical numbers of women each taking governmental bureau successful the past months. And the inclination isn’t constricted to politics: traveling done Baja California, you’ll besides announcement that galore of the apical wineries are led by passionate pistillate winemakers, who pb some the accumulation process and the businesses themselves.

More than a caller trend, this world is dilatory becoming tradition. But who are the women of Valle de Guadalupe and however did they go masters of their craft?

Laura Zamora: Matriarch of winemaking

If determination is simply a matriarch to beryllium recovered successful Mexico’s premiere vino country, it’s Laura Zamora, who has been moving successful the manufacture for the past 48 years. Now caput of her ain project, Casa Zamora, she started astatine Santo Tomás winery arsenic a laboratory tech erstwhile she was lone 17 and worked her mode up to caput winemaker. She was the archetypal pistillate successful the full state to negociate a winery of that size. Zamora has a grounds fig of liters of vino nether her belt, a presumption she shares with lone 2 different winemakers successful Baja, some men.

“I spent a batch of years doing grunt enactment nether different winemakers, doing the enactment without getting the recognition due to the fact that I was a woman,” Zamora says, “A Uruguayan person successful the manufacture told maine once, ‘Laura, you person everything against you: you don’t person a degree, you’re Mexican and you’re a woman.’ So, I thought, the lone happening I tin alteration is studying to get my degree; the different 2 things are permanent.”

So she studied portion working, earning a grade arsenic a laboratory tech successful 1977, successful Gastronomy successful 2019 and yet a master’s successful Oenology successful 2022. She thrived due to the fact that she was curious, due to the fact that she had the bully luck to beryllium trained by respective world-class winemakers, and due to the fact that she unopen retired the remainder of the world.

Cristina Pino: Doctor of the vine

Winemaker Cristina Pino posing by casks of wine.

Today, there’s a veritable sisterhood of winemakers successful Baja. This radical includes Cristina Pino, who took implicit for Zamora erstwhile she retired from Santo Tomas successful 2019. Pino came from Spain 14 years agone and has 1 of the astir awesome resumes of immoderate winemaker successful the region: bachelor’s degrees successful Oenology and cultivation engineering, a Ph.D. successful Oenology and a master’s grade successful Viticulture. As laboratory caput astatine Mexico’s second-largest vineyard, Pino is ensuring that galore women volition travel successful her footsteps.

“My teams mostly person ever had tons of women successful them,” Pino says. “I deliberation we enactment truly good together. We’re much practical, much direct, clearer, we don’t person our heads successful the clouds. I ever person women connected my teams, from processing each the mode up to operations. To spot them truly integrated into the squad makes maine truly happy.”

Eileen Gregory: Champion of sustainability

Eileen and Jim Gregory successful their vino cellar.

Outside of mega-vineyards, galore of the area’s tiny but important boutique wineries are besides tally by women. While Eileen Gregory’s hubby Phil is the authoritative winemaker of their vineyard Vena Cava, the spot couldn’t tally without her. They person an 8-room bed-and-breakfast, a monolithic integrated garden, and, arsenic of a fewer years back, a full-fledged edifice connected the spot arsenic well.

Eileen has been cardinal successful shaping the mode winemakers successful Valle de Guadalupe deliberation astir sustainability since she moved present 20 years ago. Not lone was the couple’s full spot built sustainably from the precise beginning, Eileen has been organizing 8 years of sustainability workshops for section winemakers and others funny successful taking amended attraction of Valle. She has besides been 1 of the driving forces down the Very Good Food Foundation, which helps section schools make schoolhouse gardens to thatch children astir sustainable agriculture.

“When we archetypal arrived, nary of the men I spoke with would adjacent admit what I said without checking with my hubby to guarantee helium was successful statement with my comments,” Gregory says, “Fast guardant to present and it is precise communal to spot women moving businesses and being treated with the respect they deserve.”

“Women are overmuch much apt to experimentation and make products and spaces that are attractive, innovative and welcoming,” Gregory tells me, adding that women successful Baja person reshaped the mode vino is made present too, “Twenty years ago, it was mostly lone men successful Mexico who drank vino and they tended to lone portion full-bodied reds made from good known grapes. When women started drinking wine, whites, rosés and sparkling wines became tremendously popular. Women successful the concern of winemaking were the archetypal to see, promote and enactment connected the caller opportunity.”

Maria Cantarero: Philosopher of the grape

Maria Benitez Cantarero and others arsenic portion of a sheet connected Mexican winemaking.

María Benítez Cantarero, who besides started a 2nd beingness with her hubby erstwhile they moved present 10 years agone from Mexico City, is the powerhouse down Clos de los Tres Cantos, the couple’s winery. She has meticulously chosen the varietals that they turn based connected heavy probe of their land, successful summation to incorporating regenerative cultivation practices similar gathering a wetland astatine the basal of their grape fields and planting trees and autochthonal taxon alongside their vines.

María says that since moving to Mexico from Madrid she’s been fortunate to enactment for companies wherever sex equality was important and has faced fewer barriers arsenic a pistillate successful concern here. But, she laughs, waiters inactive bring the vino to her hubby to taste, adjacent though of the 2 she has infinitely much vino knowledge. She agrees things are changing successful the region, “if thing other due to the fact that determination are tons of women successful Valle, young women, present making wine.”

Kris Magnussen: Developing Valle from a woman’s perspective

Kris Magnussen lasting successful a vineyard and holding a solid of wine

One of those younger women is Kris Magnussen, whose household has been moving Lechuza winery for the past 23 years. A azygous ma successful her 40s primitively from San Diego, California, Magnussen took implicit implicit absorption of the winery erstwhile her begetter passed distant successful 2017. She says she could person ne'er survived those archetypal respective years connected her ain without the assemblage that embraced her.

“I don’t cognize what it is astir Valle de Guadalupe, but it attracts different caliber of quality being. I retrieve aft my begetter passed, having the level of outreach from radical saying what bash you need, however tin I help, however tin I marque definite that this isn’t your end. Nobody had to bash that for me. I’m an immigrant, you know? I could person easy faded distant and person been conscionable a blip connected the radar.”

Magnussen believes that the starring women of the vale are looking astatine improvement — their ain and the region’s — successful a unsocial way.

“There is specified a immense pb of women close now,” she says, “and I deliberation women person this beautiful, maternal facet successful which we are trying to incorporated sustainable concern practices, not conscionable farming practices. We’re looking retired for aboriginal generations, encouraging higher education, we’re trying to physique the assemblage astir america to enactment america truthful we’re not alone, and successful instrumentality there’s a batch of grace. [We’re asking:] however tin we marque definite that our footprint is bigger successful regards to the occurrence arsenic a portion alternatively than conscionable our ain idiosyncratic gain?”

Lydia Carey is simply a freelance writer and translator based retired of Mexico City. She has been published wide some online and successful print, penning astir Mexico for implicit a decade. She lives a treble beingness arsenic a section circuit usher and is the writer of “Mexico City Streets: La Roma.” Follow her municipality adventures on Instagram and see much of her enactment at mexicocitystreets.com.