If there has long been a history of glass ceilings for women in the workplace (I’m looking at you, “Mad Men”), female winemakers and winery owners have nevertheless been shattering glass bottles for decades.

Consider Winemaker Emeritus Geneviève Janssens, famous for her stellar Bordeaux-style wines for Napa’s Robert Mondavi Winery, and her reverence for the globally celebrated To Kalon vineyard on the western Oakville bench.

The French artist joined Mondavi in 1978. She was hired by another icon, the now-retired Zelma Long, who was California’s second woman ever in enology (Mary Ann Graf was the first). Sip any of Janssens’ wines, and you’ll be delighted.

And I have to salute Carol Shelton, as well, winemaker and co-owner of Carol Shelton Wines in Santa Rosa. Playfully called “The Queen Of Zinfandel” among industry friends, she has celebrated her favorite varietal since 1978, alongside smatterings of equally notable white and red blends. With her cozy-casual tasting room in an unlikely industrial area, you might never guess how elegant her wines are.

I could go on and on about more powerhouse women in wine, and for later columns, I certainly will. For notable wines boasting female flair, though, start by giving these other two standouts a try, too.

Pedroncelli Winery

Founded by John Pedroncelli Sr. in 1927, the Geyserville property is now run as a fourth-generation business by president Julie Pedroncelli St. John, with Montse Reece as winemaker.

The two women work closely together on the primarily Dry Creek Valley bottlings spanning Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay and accents of unusual wines like a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay; a Sangiovese, an inaugural Blanc de Blancs and a Dry Creek Valley Port blend of Tinta Madeira, Tinta Cao, Souzao and Touriga Nacional (this is the final vintage, with just a few bottles remaining).

Pedroncelli St. John has been in the family business for 39 years, since 1985. She first worked in the tasting room and then, in 1988, started to travel on behalf of the winery.

“There were women on the supplier side of wineries working the market alongside me, as well as a few women in managerial roles at distributors,” she said of the 1980s wine industry. “It had a feeling of a men’s club at times — mostly since I was so new to the business. And, of course, I was not always recognized as a family member … when I was, it was assumed I was the owner’s wife.”

Since she took over in 2022, Pedroncelli St. John has updated the winery’s hospitality center, dialed in the portfolio to focus on estate vineyards and smaller batch wines, and implemented a replant plan for the Home Ranch Vineyard, the original land purchase by her grandparents.

Wilson Artisan Wines

With 11 wineries across Sonoma and Mendocino counties, co-owner and winemaker Diane Wilson has a lot to keep track of. Add to that numerous bottlings ranging from Cabernet Sauvignon to Sauvignon Blanc to a Kenneth Carl Brut sparkling of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a splash of Pinot Meunier. Red wines are her particular favorite.

“I try to make wines that are fruit forward, full bodied, and approachable reasonably soon,” she said. “I don’t think customers should have to wait 10 years to open a bottle.”

Together with her husband, Ken Wilson, she started buying land in western Dry Creek Valley in the early 1980s, planting their first vines in 1988. She soon took over as winemaker, working out of an old tin barn at the historic Fredson Winery (what is now Wilson Winery) in Healdsburg.

The post Meet the Women Behind Some of Sonoma and Napa’s Best Wines appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Upset about the gender pay gap? On Tuesday, April 2, you can raise a glass to hardworking (and underpaid) women around the world during “Un-Happy Hour” at Duke’s Spirited Cocktails in Healdsburg.

The event, co-hosted by the Healdsburg American Association of University Women (AAUW), will highlight the persistent wage discrepancy by offering women patrons a 20 percent discount on drinks. (In 2017, American women earned on average 80 percent of what men earned, according to AAUW, a disparity that gets even greater when you contrast the wages of women of color with those of white men). The Healdsburg happening is part of a nationwide campaign to mark “Equal Pay Day,” the symbolic day up to which the average woman must work in a particular year to catch up with what her male counterpart earned the previous year. (Men are welcome to attend the event, but will not receive discounted drinks.)

In addition to discounted drinks, Duke’s will also serve up a special drinks menu on April 2. Created by Duke co-founders Tara Heffernon and Laura Sanfilippo, it will feature libations produced by women distillers and winemakers. The Ledbetter Punch, for example, will pay homage to Lilly Ledbetter, women’s equality activist and plaintiff in the Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (Ledbetter sued Goodyear for gender discrimination, alleging that the company had given her a low salary because of her gender. Her name is attached to the Fair Pay Act of 2009).

In a wine and spirits world long dominated by men, Duke’s Spirited Cocktails is among a number of local establishments that pay tribute to women distillers and bartenders. This past month, they have poured a Wild Women Do cocktail to celebrate Women’s History Month and the launch of the Women’s Cocktail Collective, a collaboration aimed to “elevate and amplify the voices of all women in the industry.” Fifty percent of sales from the drink, which is made with Square One Organic Vodka, Pür Pear Likör, Buddha’s Hand Shrub, and lemon, will be donated to the National Women’s History Museum.

Heffernon and Sanfilippo are also featured in a 2019 Bay Area Bar Women calendar, produced in partnership with Scottish spirits company Edrington. The calendar spotlights women from twelve influential Bay Area bars with the subjects dressed up as influential and inspiring women. Heffernon and Sanfilippo appear in September as paleontologists Annie Alexander and Louise Kellogg.

“So many of the other female bartenders were being powerful and sexy entertainers…We’re Sonoma County farmers and we wanted to portray women connected to the land,” said Heffernon. 

(The calendar is for sale at Duke’s – all proceeds benefit the Helen David Relief Fund for Bartenders Affected by Breast Cancer and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Edrington is matching 100 percent of donations.)

Heffernon, a Healdsburg local, says that creating the Healdsburg bar with her longtime friends has been a dream. In June, it celebrates its three-year anniversary. 

While weekends get crowded at the bar, she says that weeknights are all about the locals. “We get to make nerdy craft cocktails but without the pompousness that can sometimes go along with that. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you order or what you’re wearing or what your day was like – we just want you to come in and feel very, very welcome.”

Equal Pay Day unHappy hour will take place from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at 111 Plaza St. in Healdsburg.

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To most of the world, Sonoma and Napa are synonymous with wine. But in recent years, the region known as Wine Country has also become known as a mecca for craft beer lovers. Now, a new addition to the local beverage scene is merging wine and beer.

St. Clair Brown, a Napa winery, recently revealed that they have added a “nanobrewery” to their operations. The winery, which opened four years ago in the city of Napa, bills itself as an “urban winery,” and is nestled among culinary gardens with a greenhouse tasting room. The winery hosts music performances and locals nights, and offers wine tastings of their small production wines, which include sauvignon blanc, muscat, rosé, zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon. And now, there’s craft beer, too.

Since opening the winery in 2014, St. Clair Brown co-founder and winemaker Elaine St. Clair had dreamt of adding a brewery to the operations. A former winemaker at Domaine Chandon and former brewmaster and co-owner of Napa Ale Works, she founded St. Clair Brown with co-owner Laina Brown with the intention of creating small batch wine (they make about 1,000 cases a year) and small production craft beer.

“I’ve always wanted to get back to beer,” shares St. Clair, “If we were going to be here for the rest of our lives, I really wanted to be able to do both again.” (St. Clair holds a degree in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis, with a focus in both winemaking and brewing).

St. Clair Brown’s nanobrewery (“a scaled-down microbrewery”) is the first of its kind in the city of Napa, which has seen an uptick in breweries over the past few years as more locals and visitors have become thirsty for something more than wine. The brewery produces ten beers, about 60 gallons of each batch, which are bottled by hand in re-sealable Champagne bottles. The beers are unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and malt-driven, with a preference for a less bitter or heavily hopped profile.

“I’m a traditionalist in my palate choices. I want to make beers that are just wonderfully balanced,” says St. Clair.

St. Clair Brown winery serves three beers on tap, with weekly rotations through the beer lineup. Their current beer offerings include a little something for everyone: pilsner, honey wheat ale, farmhouse saison, pale ale, red ale, Scottish ale, brown ale, black IPA, porter and oatmeal stout. Tastings, glasses and growlers are offered.

St. Clair Brown Winery & Brewery is located at 816 Vallejo St., Napa, CA 94559. 707-255-5591. stclairbrownwinery.com. 

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