Winemaker fights for women

Winemaker Andrea Engler-Waibel, 44, founded the wine women network “Vinissima” with six experts from the industry. The Tolfioow Woman of the Month fights for the world of wine to become more feminine.

She was one of the youngest of the group that gathered around Beate Wiedemann-Schmidt’s kitchen table on a July evening in 1991. But it was also clear to Andrea Engler-Waibel that something had to happen. The then 23-year-old oenology student – one of five women among 95 fellow students in Geisenheim – came from a family of winemakers herself and knew the structures of the wine scene very well. “It was still a male domain in the early 1990s ,” she recalls. “Although many companies would not have been able to exist without the help of women. Nevertheless, they remained the ‘women of’.

A trained cellar master was a rarity.” Even women who were able to assert themselves in the wine world were alone. Because associations like the wine brotherhoods were reserved for men. A situation that Andrea Engler-Waibel and her six colleagues – a winemaker, a cellar master, two wine marketers and two trade journalists – did not want to accept. So the evening was not only blissful with wine, but also productive: In the end, an association was born in Oberrotweil am Kaiserstuhl, in which women from the wine industry can exchange ideas, train and make contacts – Vinissima . A place for networkers at a time when this term hardly existed.

In the era before email and Facebook, networking proved to be a cumbersome affair. “In the initial phase, a lot of time was spent putting the letters in bags,” says Andrea Engler-Waibel. Because the response from the wine women , who were fed up with their lone wolf existence, was enormous. If the founders had initially expected 25 members, after five years there were already 150. “Many men smiled at us and thought: ‘Let’s see how long they hold out'”, remembers the long-standing treasurer of the association and cannot even smile suppress.

The skeptics have long been silent. The women’s network works on a subject-related basis. Not a trace of the “little coffee party with alcohol”, as a daily newspaper put it after the founding. “Trader meets winemaker” is the name of a current workshop . The regional meetings are about biodiversity or organic farming, sometimes also about promoting young people. Since 1998, the association has also appeared in public at the annual ” Vinissima Forum ” to discuss wine and women’s policy issues. The network received the accolade within the industry on its tenth birthday: Since then, the wine women have had a seat in the German Winegrowers’ Association. Vinissima now has 400 members , including star sommelier Nathalie Lumpp and top chef Lea Linster.

Today, Andrea Engler-Waibel does not have as much time for the club as she used to, apart from her own winery, her family and her hobby of singing. However, the network still has a high priority for them. “My children sometimes moan – but besides family, wine is the top topic in my life,” says the winemaker over a glass of Gutedel. “That’s why I’m happy when Vinissima helps more and more women to be successful in this industry.”

Crystal Waston MD

Crystal Waston has a degree in Cross Media Production and Publishing. At vital.de she gives everyday tips and deals with topics related to women's health, sport, and nutrition.

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