PEOPLE ❘ FEMALE CELLAR MASTERS


the beginning, it wasn’t easy – not because I’m a woman, but because I have difficulty giving orders. I hate to impose, to make people do what they don’t understand. My way of leading is more flexible, more feminine perhaps. I like to participate and work in a team.” With a string of diplomas – she holds a doctorate in Biological and Medical Sciences – Sandrine has held her position since 1998 and was the first woman to become cellar master in a Bordeaux cru classé, a revolution at the time. Since then, Sandrine, now a mother and head of a team of nine employees, has changed the way she works – a lot. “In the past, I wore a cellar master apron, jeans and a fleece jacket. We had to move the barrels by hand. Now we use pallet trucks and handling equipment. Today, I’m less involved in operations than when I started. Sometimes I carry boxes or an empty barrel. Otherwise we are helped or we use handling tools.”


Again, Sandrine passionately loves her job. “I encourage women to do it, not to set limits or barriers. It’s a profession of passion and I can only motivate girls to do it. The field is becoming feminised and being a woman cellar master is almost normal these days. In the past, when faced with hiring a woman, the owners of big wineries asked questions. Today, they have no hesitation.”


It remains to be seen whether these women bring a feminine touch to the wines they make. “We should ask the consumers to see if they find a touch of femininity in our wines,” says Geneviève. “That may be the case, but I don’t always make wines I like. For example, we’ve just released a new wine, a slightly sweet rosé. I did it because I know


28 ❘ FRANCE TODAY Apr/May 2020


there are consumers, especially women, who will drink this wine because it is a little sweet and not too acidic.”


Sandrine adds: “The profession has become more feminised and I believe that today, being cellar master is more a matter of sensitivity than of gender. The misconception, often, is that women are more careful, fastidious. But this is entirely false. There are careful and fastidious men. What makes the difference is personal sensitivity, that which makes us work differently according to our own tastes, according to what touches us.” FT


IMAGES © CHÂTEAU D’YQUEM, CHRISTOPHE CONSTANT


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