Meet the women
Elena Pantaleoni
Her core belief is that wine should not be a mass-produced industrial beverage that tastes the same every time you drink it, but one that surprises you. She wants drinkers to experience wine like it used to be made up until World War II, artisanally and with respect for the place the grapes grow. lastoppa.com
Francesca and Margherita Padovani
The twins’ Brunello di Montalcino is regularly rejected by the regulatory DOCG board for tasting ‘atypical’, but is a risk the sisters are prepared to take for making pure, artisanal wine. Being sisters – and partners – has its challenges too. It’s been twenty years and they have changed, and so has their relationship. fonterenza.it
Jutta Ambrositsch
Making wine in the middle of the Austrian capital, Jutta thinks her career change, from graphic designer to winegrower, is the best thing she has ever done. Loves working in the vineyard but dislikes winemaking and tasting unfinished wine and therefore has a minimal intervention approach. jutta-ambrositsch.at
Alice Bouvot
Is guided by the words “Do I like it or not?” She trusts only herself and her grapes without any regard for what other people might think and talks to the yeast if a fermentation is stuck. She has left the appellation in Arbois, Jura, and instead sells her wines as lowly Vin de France. octavin.fr
Stefanie and Susanne Renner
The sisters took over the family wine business in Burgenland, became their parents’ bosses and told their father to back off – they had a plan. They revel in the freedom of being their own bosses and think it’s easier to make wine together as sisters rather than as a couple, because they don’t have to share a bed. rennerundsistas.at
Catherine Hannoun
A filmmaker-turned-winemaker, making wine the same way she made films, by experimenting. But even if she’s a micro-producer, it’s hard to get time to do what she loves most – experimenting in the cellar and being with her daughter.
Arianna Occhipinti
Started making wine on her own at 21, in Sicily, but her passion is about so much more than natural wine, it is to leave a legacy, to be remembered in a hundred years as the woman who was a steward of nature, someone who worked with future generations in mind. agricolaocchipinti.it