The Somm Journal

100 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018/2019 restaurant and sat at the only table, which was a communal table," she explained. "There were three gentlemen there, and the conversation went like this: Them: Hi, are you from around here? Us: No, we just flew in from California. Them: Oh, are you flight attendants? Us: No, we have a meeting with Kroger [the grocery store chain] in the morning. Them: We had a meeting with Kroger today ourselves. Who do you represent? Us: We don't represent anyone. We own a wine company. Them: Really? You guys own the company? Us: Yes. Them: Well, good luck with your meeting tomorrow. We know it's difficult for small companies to get into Kroger. Us: Actually, we've sold our wines to Kroger for many years. "And then," Andréa recalled, "there was this awkward silence." It's safe to presume that few women in the wine industry can't relate to Andréa's story. Historically, though, the lack of Latina women in the wine industry has been especially surprising given the ubiquitous presence of Latino men, who now make up a growing percentage of workers in wineries, not just in the vineyards. Fortunately, the news on this front is good: Quietly but steadily over the last few years, Latinas have joined vineyard crews in numbers that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. In 2013, for example, women represented fewer than 5 percent of vineyard workers in the Napa Valley. Last harvest, they represented nearly 30 percent, according to a 2017 re - port from UC Davis researchers Malcolm Hobbs and Monica Cooper. That report, titled Changing Gender Diversity of the California Vineyard Labor Force and Implications for Grape Production, further revealed an enormous cultural and gender shift among vineyard workers. That shift has occurred not just at the lower rungs on the ladder : The researchers also found that by 2000, Latina women already held a significant percentage of managerial positions in California vineyard operations. Breaking Barriers Beyond these shifts in representation—in which much more progress remains to be made—what else has changed? While men in the wine industry have been con - spicuously silent on the topics of wom- en's advancement and harassment, several large companies, among them Treasury Wine Estates, Constellation Brands, and E. & J. Gallo, have now established profes - sional advancement programs for their women employees. Harassment is, of course, a trickier issue, as it doesn't have to be profound or overt to undermine women professionally. The unrelenting presence of subconscious ha - rassment—being belittled, ignored, talked over, looked past, demeaned, interrupted, reprimanded, corrected, or addressed as a junior, among countless other slights and abuses—takes a toll on anyone's confidence and sends rivulets of insecurity coursing through one's brain. And sometimes on top of all that, there's the insidious insult of being sexual - ized to the extent that one might well begin to imagine themself as somehow less capable. Social wine events don't "re- quire" men to dress differently, but what of women? Are low-cut dresses and 4-inch heels just part of the cultural expectation? Can one really move on to become the CEO of a wine company if you've also been unfairly cast as the sexually provoca - tive one? Maybe, but I'm not so sure. I'm remind- ed of a sign in the women's locker room of a health club I once belonged to: It pictured an older woman with the caption, "My only regret in life is that I didn't tell more men to fuck off." For this year's status report, I once again surveyed 160 women in the wine industry and asked them the following: In the wine industr y, women remain underrepresented in most professional roles and at most levels, from entr y to executive. What are the biggest barriers to women's advancement? I presented 11 options, but respondents could also write in their own suggestions. The top response for the biggest barrier to women's advancement: Merry Edwards and Heidi von der Mehden Michelle Metter Rebecca Hopkins

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