Why “women are not ordinary winegrowers”

n 2020, 22-year-old Elisabeth Auzias, the daughter of a winegrower at Domaine de Paretlongue (southern France) and a student at the Lyon school of engineers, convinced Manon (AgroParisTech), Sophie (ENS) and Zoé (HEC) to take to the roads of Europe to conduct a survey into winegrowing innovation faced with climate change, as part of the Inrae Laccave project. Before setting off in their minivan, the four friends decided to join the Worldwine Women association, founded the year before, and to take advantage of their journey to promote the role of women in the wine space.

Over a four-month period, they travelled 14,000 kilometres across 10 countries – from Spain to Georgia – conducting 60 interviews. “We discovered that women are not just ordinary winegrowers, not because of their X chromosome, but because of their status as fighters which asserts itself in a traditionally male-dominated environment. They choose their profession out of passion and are not weighed down by the burden of tradition. Therefore, they seem to be apt to innovate and take initiatives off the well-trodden path”, recounted Auzias after returning in France.

In order to share their experience with the broadest possible audience, and to help Zoé’s plans to work in the audio-visual industry to materialise, the friends decide to produce a documentary. They wrapped up ‘Into the Wine’ in just 9 months. The 52-minute film can be viewed on the aunomdelaterre.tv platform. On 8 March, the four accomplices revealed the sequel to their documentary ‘Vigneronnes’ on YouTube, to coincide with International Women’s Day.  

“To please my father, who was counting on my brother to ensure the future of the farm, I studied the piano and French, and I became a vet. Ultimately, after he passed away I became a winegrower, and I think he’d be happy about that at the end of the day”, recounts the manager of Fattoria Pomona, who admits, “I miss my friends, the cinema and the theatre”.

“When you love someone, it’s very challenging because for 4 months, I don’t leave the winery”, adds a Bulgarian winegrower. “I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband who understands me very well”, says the grower at the helm of the 250-hectare Domaine Iconic in Romania.