FEMALE CELLAR MASTERS ❘ PEOPLE
“I THINK THAT A WOMAN CAN EASILY REPLACE A MAN IN THIS PROFESSION. IT ALL DEPENDS ON HER TEMPERAMENT”
Clockwise from main image:
Aurélie Julien manages every stage of the wine production at Domaine de la Coquillade; harvest time is an especially busy time of year – for all cellar masters
problem. Maybe it’s because of my temperament. I say to myself: what the men do, I know how to do, so I don’t wait for them to do it – I can get my hands dirty. Having said that, a man is physically stronger than a woman, but if you know how to use your head, you don’t necessarily have to use your arms.”
KNOWING THE ROPES
In this region of southeast France, where vineyards abound, it is not surprising that about 10 kilometres away another woman, Geneviève Robert, reigns over another cellar: la Cave de Sylla in Apt, the capital of the Luberon. Here, there’s the same atmosphere and the same powerful aromas, but bigger. The cellar, a major cooperative, exploits 1,000 hectares of vines and produces 50,000 hectolitres of wine per year. “I was working in the cellar as a quality manager when, in 1996, the cellar master broke a shin,” says Geneviève. “Since I was the only one who knew how the cellar worked, I was asked to take his job. It’s an essentially masculine environment here. There are 110 winegrowers who bring their grapes to the cellar, but only four are women.” Geneviève recalls that, not so long ago, winegrowers in certain regions of France didn’t allow menstruating women to enter the cellars for fear they would spoil the wine. “It took me almost fi ve years to be accepted here – or at least there were no longer too many comments,” she says. “First of all, I wanted to improve the quality of the wines, so I had to impose stricter standards. People used to say, ‘she’s a woman and, in addition, she wants to show us how to do our job’. Eventually, as I got results, was rigorous and set an example, the
men started to respect me. Of course, it was complicated, but I think I have a character that allows me to deal with this kind of situation. I don’t hesitate to tell it like it is. When a winegrower brings me a bucket of grapes full of leaves, I say to him, ‘Have you seen your bucket? Who do you think you are? So, get on your dumpster and remove the leaves’. And he does it.”
Her work is quite physical but Geneviève, who has two children, is lucky. “My husband has a job with normal hours and he is able to take care of our children. It allowed me to fl ourish in this profession that I adore. During the harvest, I start at 4.30am and fi nish at 9pm. At this time of year, when I’m in the cellar, I need a guy to give me a hand because when you have to lift 70cm-diameter pipes fi lled with juice, it’s pretty heavy, so you need male strength. “In fact, if the wine profession is becoming more feminine, it is more evident on the vineyard side. In the cellar, it’s more complicated – even if more women are making wine. In addition, there are men who can’t stand female authority. But that, I believe, is not unique to the wine industry.”
THE RIGHT TEMPERAMENT The appearance of more women in the profession has proved one thing: that it is character that makes the cellar master, rather than gender. Hundreds of kilometres from Apt, near Bordeaux, Sandrine Garbay, cellar master at the prestigious Château d’Yquem, explains: “In my opinion, being cellar master is more a question of temperament, rather than being a man or a woman. For me, at
❯❯ Apr/May 2020 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 27
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