WINE
B Y L A N C E S PA R K S
WOMEN IN WINE
Women are vital to survival, and to wine
Y
ears ago, staffers at EW were invited to Portland to sample
the quality of some craft brews in Beer-vana. As a lark,
clever staffers decided it might be fun to include on the
trip — and into the story — a known “wine guy” and rec-
ognized beer-phobe, namely me.
Predictably enough, I was deeply impressed by flavors and tex-
tures in many of the beers. But when it came time to write my piece
for the issue, I must’ve been inspired by Jonathan Swift’s great sat-
ire, “A Modest Proposal.”
You probably encountered Swift in school and might remem-
ber that he penned that deathless essay in response to the English
Parliament’s endless dithering (and inaction) over the starvation of
thousands of Irish children; his bitter satire suggested that instead of
wasting all that protein — just burying all those little dead bodies —
the English overlords, particularly the wealthy ruling classes, should
simply buy the dressed carcasses, then cook and eat them.
Like all satires, Swift’s ran the risk of being misread as straight, a
serious proposal. But common lore tells us that some MPs (members
of Parliament) were met at their doors by angry wives, who had read
the “Proposal” and told that they should return to their deliberations
until they had solved the problem of those starving children — and
incidentally find the author of the “Proposal” and swiftly hang him.
I knew the risks, but, so inspired, decided to try my hand at satire.
So I keyed in an essay in which I “blamed” women for discovering
beer; I thought readers would likely decode “blame” for its opposite,
praise. See, I’m deeply troubled by the ways our cultures — East
and West — have treated women. I can’t, even after years of study-
ing history, begin to understand that awful accumulation of injustice,
sometimes outright horror (burning “witches” at the stake).
Clearly, women have been vital to our survival, as a species and
as civilization itself.
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Lessons
So, not only do I “blame” women for beer, I also blame them
for food, clothing, shelter, nearly all the amenities of civilization —
and wine. It was probably women who first “gathered” wild grapes;
some grapes likely fermented: wine ensued. Women, too, probably
worked clay into pots, the first wine containers. This history reach-
es back maybe 10,000 years, and nobody I’ve read has offered any
clear notion of just when men began their domination of the whole
wine enterprise, excluding women until recently; as an ironic note,
the first woman degreed as a “master of wine” was chosen as late
as 1970.
Absurd, no? Worthy of satire, yes.
For centuries an exclusive men’s club, in recent decades the do-
main of wine has been thoroughly penetrated by women; put sim-
ply, women are now doing everything in wine, from ownership of
brands, to planting vines and managing vineyards, to making wine,
to marketing and sales.
A little time surfing the web reveals the extent of women’s roles
in wine. Perhaps the most exciting involves recent changes in
South African wines where women — including black women
(until recently, South Africa’s wines were dominated not only
by men, but white men) — in positions of ownership, in
winemaking, in all aspects of sales. No names here. The
web now lists, variously, “The 10 [or 50] Most Power-
ful Women in Wine.” Silly stuff, that.
This kind of inanity proves — conclusively to my
mind — that women are fully equal to (or sometimes
better than) men in the world of wine, taking the
silly with the sublime. Here, at least, progress has
been made, and the changes are probably permanent,
and altogether beneficial. Now, we can comfortably
“blame” some women for the richly complex flavors in
this or that pinot noir, or this or that dazzling chardonnay.
Savor the changes. Enjoy wine’s spring. Call your
mother; she can surely bear the “blame.” Thank her and all
her historical sisters — for the clothes, the food, the shelter, the beer
— and the wine.
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eugeneweekly.com • May 18, 2017
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