06 Oct

Alison Sokol Blosser

Alison Sokol Blosser, daughter of Susan Sokol Blosser and Bill Blosser, remembers being small enough to climb into the press to help her father clean it during harvest. I’m sure every Thirsty Girl wishes those were her childhood memories. That’s why Alison Sokol Blosser is this week’s TTG. From there on, Alison decided that while the actual winemaking wasn’t her thing, the family vineyard and winery were in her blood.

After getting her MBA at the University of Washington and spending three years working in public relations and marketing communications with startups and consumer branding giants Nike and Nordstrom, she came home to Sokol Blosser in 2004 as Director of Marketing. Now a Co-President, Alison works with her brother Alex (yes, it’s a family business!) to plan the strategic future of the business and also oversees marketing, sales, and administrative functions, including accounting, finance and human resources.

Alison is involved in the Oregon wine industry as a board member of Oregon Pinot Camp, a board member of Wine America, and as a member of the Oregon Wine Board’s marketing committee. She was also a founding board member of the Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association.

Besides running the business side of Sokol Blosser Winery she enjoys spending time with her son, Dario, and a standard poodle, Twix.

Follow Sokol Blosser on Facebook.

Or visit the Sokol Blosser Winery homepage.

10 Mar

Bertha Gonzalez Nieves

Only a few men in the world hold the top distinction in the tequila category as Maestro Tequilero. And even fewer women. Bertha González Nieves is the first woman ever to be accredited as Maestra Tequilera by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila.

Her extensive, unparalleled knowledge of the industry, coupled with her singular vision to revolutionize the category of tequila, lead her on a journey to create a tequila with a profile unlike any other. Casa Dragones is a limited edition, uniquely smooth sipping tequila, hand-crafted in small batches with meticulous attention to detail.

Prior to co-founding Tequila Casa Dragones, González Nieves spent the last ten years as a top executive for Jose Cuervo International, the largest tequila company in the world and one of the top ten global spirits. She was responsible for Cuervo’s portfolio of brands in North America and managed over 65% of the company’s worldwide revenue. González Nieves was also instrumental in establishing the company’s global team in New York and played a key role in the recent upsurge and popularity of the tequila category in the U.S. and worldwide.

While at Jose Cuervo, she held senior marketing and commercial positions, including Commercial Director for North America, Global Director of New Business and Innovation and Global Brand Director. Prior to her position at Jose Cuervo, González Nieves served as a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, where she designed and implemented marketing strategies for leading global packaged goods companies.

González Nieves graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Business Administration from Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City and holds a Masters of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Medill School of Journalism & J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Among her honors, she received the Arthur E. Tatham Award for exceptional performance and outstanding promise in the field of marketing communications. She has also been identified as one of Mexico’s top young businesswomen.

In her spare time, González Nieves pursues various personal endeavors, including producing a film entitled Matando Cabos that was selected to appear at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and launching DF, Mexico City’s magazine in 2005.

She has also served as board member of Editorial Mapas in Mexico City and Legal Momentum in New York City, as well as on the marketing committee of El Museo del Barrio in New York City.

You can find out more about Tequila Casa Dragones on their website at http://casadragones.com. Join them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CasaDragones.

And follow them on Twitter at @Casa_Dragones.

03 Feb

Tanya Pietrosante

Tanya Pietrosante began Spiked Cakes in August 2010. With a background in accounting and business and after becoming a stay at home mom, her desire to be back in the business world reemerged.

Something kept telling her she needed to be on her own. Tanya wanted to LOVE what she was to do. Having known she loved good food, good drink, and good people was obvious but she never thought a career could come of it.

Tanya began working at Natali Vineyards in 2008 by supplying the Vineyard with a fruit called Beach Plums that she and her husband grow. The relationship blossomed and she realized her love for the atmosphere of the Vineyard. After that she began working in the tasting room and working events.

In her mind, she knew that she wanted to do this every day in some aspect. She couldn’t find her niche until one day someone asked why standard wines aren’t normally paired with desserts, which got her thinking. She decided to combine wine and dessert in a different way, hence how Spiked Cakes began.

Even though she wasn’t a baker, as soon as she made her first batch of spiked cupcakes the ideas wouldn’t stop coming. She was making cocktails and having fun. By October of 2010 word was out and people were loving it.

There has been bumps in the road but she is determined to succeed because of her love and passion, and with so advernturous many ideas, Tanya is not only a Thirsty Girl, but has found her calling.

Email Tanya: spikedcakes@gmail.com

Follow Tanya at http://twitter.com/SpikedCakes

On the web: http://www.relylocal.com/newjersey/cape-may-county/spiked-cakes

13 Jan

Danielle Westfall

She’s not a wine geek. Far from it. Whenever someone (for instance her husband) starts to wax on about how they can detect gooseberries or cumin or porcini in a wine’s aroma, Danielle Westfall is most likely rolling her eyes. It’s not that she doesn’t like wine … she loves it, in fact, there’s nothing better than a great glass of Pinot Noir or Sauv Blanc at the end of the day – or any time really; she just doesn’t want to analyze it to death.

People are surprised at this lack of, shall we say, descriptive gusto. Just about her entire career has been spent in the wine business, starting with a marketing and operations director role at Wine.com – one of the first on-line wine retailers — in the late 1990’s. From there she eventually moved on to Viansa Winery. Viansa (a brand known at the time for being a complete innovator – -selling over 80K cases a year solely through the Direct channel) was like a second child. As the VP of Marketing & Ops, she advanced the winery’s consumer direct business in what was the true sense of multi-channel direct wine brand. A winery property that could be compared to a theme park, a Wine Club with tens of thousands members, catalogs, food products, magazines, events, and oh yeah! The wines! It was an experience she would not change for anything.

This Thirsty Girl is an entrepreneur at heart (and perhaps a sucker for start-ups) and in 2006 she decided to launch her own business, Westfall Marketing Group. The timing was good – more and more wine and luxury brands were starting to realize that marketing directly to consumers was a good way to build awareness and loyalty and sell more wine. Her client base expanded quickly to include brands like legendary racecar driver Mario Andretti’s wine brand, Andretti Winery, Francis Ford Coppola’s Rubicon Estate, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, St. Supery Vineyards and Winery, and Childress Vineyards of NASCAR fame. Exciting work with the perks of great wines to enjoy.

Then she got another idea. After having children she would get together with other moms for play dates and inevitably the conversation would turn to the myriad charity events they were involved in or cared about. One day she thought — why not put these two together? And that’s how VinoFina – an on-line wine retailer that donates a portion of every bottle sold to charities and non-profits – got started. That was in the fall of 2009.

Apparently one start-up, a consulting business and two girls under 7 wasn’t enough for her, so in early 2010 her and her husband Tony, launched Winery Insider, a luxury members only wine channel. So, like countless others before them, they dumped their life savings into starting another business.

So here she is with one husband, two children, and three businesses. Juggling is all she does, besides drink. Sleeping is for sissies. And though it’s true she may not be one to discuss a wine’s acidity level or tannin profile, she know what she likes, why she likes it and when she’d want to drink it, and after all this experience she’s pretty good at figuring out what her customers like as well.

Hopefully, that’ll be enough businesses for her for now … until the next idea pops up. After all she is a Thirsty Girl.

w ww.invino.com

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16 Dec

Joy Ann Sterling

A pioneer in the Green Valley appellation within the Russian River area of Sonoma County, the Iron Horse family is building a legacy of prestige sparkling wines and estate-bottled Chardonnay and Pinot Noir within a “holistic” environment of natural balance, cultivation and love of the land.

Joy represents the second generation at her family’s winery, Iron Horse Vineyards. She is the CEO of the winery and the author of four books. After growing up in Paris and being influenced in very French ways, Joy traveled, attended Yale and rose in ranks at ABC as a journalist.

In 1985, Joy left her corporate life and joined the family business, embarking on a new era of woman winemakers in California. Significantly, she made news headlines for the winery with her first achievement at Iron Horse. In November 1985, the White House selected Iron Horse Sparkling Wine for the President’s toast to peace at the first summit meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva.

Iron Horse is best known for it’s Sparkling Wines which have been served at the White House for over 25 years, continuing with the Obamas, making this the fifth consecutive presidential administration to serve Iron Horse.

Joy has climbed Kilimanjaro, trekked in Tibet and Bhutan and run white water rapids on the Bio – Bio River in Chile and on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China. Her most recent adventure was a road trip in West Africa to Timbuktu. She sits on the Board of Trustees of the Leakey Foundation and the Steering Committee for a National Geographic Society California Educational Fund. She spearheads an eco-fundraising event: Celebrate Earth Day in Green Valley, raising awareness and much needed funds for green non-profit organizations.

But Joy’s real purpose in giving back is to help maintain wildlife and protect marine areas. As an avid hiker and adventurer, Joy combined her passion for wildlife and business by launching a vintage Sparkling 2005 Ocean Reserve in partnership with National Geographic this fall. The winery is contributing $4 a bottle to help establish marine protected areas and reduce over fishing.

You can find out more about Iron Horse Vineyards on their website at http://www.ironhorsevineyards.com/ or email at info@ironhorsevineyards.com

Join them on Facebook at Iron Horse Vineyards. or follow them on Twitter at @IronHorseVyds.

18 Nov

Cathy Corison

“Wine is alive on so many levels. Mother Nature is really the winemaker; we are merely stewards. Grapes, barrels and corks are the result of a collaboration between earth and sky and yeast, a living organism, performs the magical alchemy of transforming grape juice into wine. Wine speaks of time and place. I’m a thirsty girl because wine plugs me into life.”

Spoken by this week’s Thursday Thirsty Girl, Cathy Corison, who has produced and help produce wines for over 30 years. After receiving her B.A. in Biology from Pomona College and an M.S. in Enology from U.C. Davis she spent years winemaking for others, including a decade as the Winemaker at Chappellet Vineyard, Staglin’s first two vintages and 10 vintages each for Long Meadow Ranch and York Creek Vineyards.

Cathy was left eager to express her own winemaking voice. Guided by her belief that winemaking and wine appreciation are a timeless, creative celebration of life, she has created quite a name for herself in the female wine world.Cathy Corison produces two Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, hand-crafted without compromise. Wines with a sense of place, that are powerful and elegant at the same time and are structured to grace the table and enjoy a long, distinguished life.

She sources some of the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley, all located on classic benchland between Rutherford and St. Helena, where deep, stony alluvial soils promote the ideal growing conditions for the Cabernet vine. These vines regularly produce some of the most concentrated and superbly ripened fruit anywhere.

Cathy’s passion and attention to detail in wine making not only make her a highly regarded figure and excellent wine maker, they make her this week’s Thursday Thirsty Girl. So grab a glass and pour yourself a nice warm Cabernet to celebrate Cathy and the cooler months.

You can find out more about Cathy and her wines on her website at www.corison.com

You can also find Cathy on Twitter at @cathycorison and on Facebook.

04 Nov

Laura Catena

Laura Catena was born in Mendoza, Argentina, “la tierra del sol y del vino” (“the land of sun and wine”), the province where Argentina’s most famous wines are crafted. Mendoza is a land of breathtaking beauty, a mountain-flanked desert where rivers feed a bountiful oasis of grapevines, walnut trees, nectarines, tomatoes, garlic and all manner of vegetables and fruits. If ever there was a heaven for winemaking, Mendoza is it, and Laura was their girl.

This week’s Thursday Thirsty Girl is a fourth generation of an Argentine-Italian winemaking family. Wine has defined her life. Her great grandfather founded the Catena Zapata winery in Mendoza in 1902 after emigrating from Italy. Her father, Nicolas Catena, a third-generation winemaker, helped pioneer viticulture in Mendoza; he’s often referred to as “the Robert Mondavi of Argentina.” Today, their winery is internationally known for its highly rated vintages and for its role in pioneering Argentina’s malbec revolution.

After finishing high school in Berkeley, I attended Harvard where she studied biology (graduating magna cum laude). At the age of 21, the summer before she started medical school, my father invited me to travel to Bordeaux, France, with him as his translator. There I fell eternally in love with French wines, French art, and the traditions of French winemaking, where grapes made from old vines are the stuff of sublime vintages. She grew increasingly enamored with the virtues of old vines. The French believe that an old vineyard (at least 25 years old) gives you better grapes. At that time, the conventional wisdom among leading winemakers in Mendoza placed little value on old vines, and even less on purchased grapes—“grower grapes,” winemakers felt, were synonymous with poor-quality wine. After visiting the world’s great wine regions in France, Italy, California and South Africa, however, I was convinced that the conventional wisdom in Argentina was outmoded.

Ten years ago, she took to the back roads of Mendoza, scouring the countryside in search of old vines where she uncovered dozens of small, independently owned family vineyards planted with spectacular old-vine malbec, syrah and cabernet sauvignon grapes. She leapt at the opportunity to work with these growers to craft artisanal wines using their old-vine grapes. That trip deep into Mendoza was not just about discovering tangled old vines tended by passionate wine growers; it was, for her, an exhilarating journey into one of the world’s most unspoiled paradises.

In 1999 she made my first Luca wines, named after my son. Ten years later, the old-vine grapes came through: Luca Malbec 2007 was named one of the world’s 100 best wines in Wine Spectator.

Today, the family’s winery, Bodega Catena Zapata, is known internationally for its highly rated wines and for its role in pioneering Argentina’s malbec revolution. At Catena Zapata, Laura’s role as President, oversees operations, exports, and is intimately involved with our viticultural and winemaking program, including the blends and vineyard lot selections for all our wines.

Currently I live in San Francisco and spend about one third of the year in Mendoza. She is a vintner, a businesswoman, practicing physician, a medical professor at UCSF Medical Center, a mother of three, wife of one (Daniel McDermott, another ER doctor), and a world-wide ambassador for Argentine wine. She is also an author (Vino Argentino is my first book) and inventor, and on occasion, a good tango dancer.

She is truly a Thirsty Girl because she is guided in all her my endeavors by the principles of innovation, hard work, and respect and kindness for all those in my path, whether a patient, a family member, a co-worker, customer, or business partner. Her personal philosophy is to be “hard on issues, soft on people,” a credo that I believe could (if not should) be applied to all the facets of life.

Fern Berman Communications

www.fernberman.com

fern@fernberman.com

Argentina Contact: florenciapereyra@catenazapata.com

www.lafite.com (CARO)

21 Oct

Marie Elena Martinez

In the fall of 2005, Marie Elena Martinez decided to put windowless office space, toner requests, writing literary press releases, and ten-years-on-the-job toasters behind her. Leaving a successful PR gig at HarperCollins Publishers, she followed her heart…out of the country.

Over the last five years, she’s visited six continents and more than thirty countries as diverse as Argentina, India, Tanzania, and New Zealand, her love of good food and great wine intensifying in each new locale.

Currently, she is living in her hometown of New York City finishing a travel memoir about her time abroad and reentry into the States. She also writes freelance travel pieces for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Newsday, Women’s Adventure, and The Miami Herald. Marie Elena’s full resume can be found on her website: http://www.marieelenamartinez.com/ and her travel blog, Marie’s World, can be found at http://mariesworld74.blogspot.com/.

You can also follow her travel, food, and wine discoveries in real-time on Twitter at @mariesworlds and on her Marie’s World Facebook Fan Page. She is also one of our guest bloggers, who wrote about her experience in Africa, check out her posts on our crave blog using the links below.

Bring on Africa

The Kilimanjaro Diaries

After Kilimanjaro

14 Oct

Cindy Cosco

Cindy Cosco fell in love with winemaking as a young girl while growing up in West Virginia, listening to her grandfather regale the family with stories of making wine in the basement.

After leaving a 15 year law enforcement career, Cindy Cosco pursued her passion for wine and winemaking. After moving to California in 2004, she worked part time at BevMo and connected with people who worked at Chateua St Jean. Before she knew it she was working the 2004 harvest. After being hired full time she stayed on for threeyears and attended the Napa Valley College Enology Program.

In May 2007, she attended an open house at Crushpad. I loved the concept of making my own wine. It was all about timing and being a true Thirsty Girl, before she knew it Cindy was working at Crushpad overseeing fermentation and creating her own label, Passaggio, “New Generation.”

Her work ethic and ability to see a market for inexpensive but good wine is why Cindy is a true Thirsty Girl, her passion for wine and making wine is something she wishes to share with everyone.

Since the first launch of the 2007 Passaggio Unoaked Chardonnay, she has also added a Pinot Grigio. In 2010 she is hoping to add a Rose to Passaggio Wines. She’s had a wonderful journey and is excited to see what lies ahead for Passaggio Wines. Her motto, as any Thirsty Girl’s should be, “Follow Your Passion,” and she certainly has.

http://passaggiowines.com/http://www.facebook.com/cynthia.cosco

http://twitter.com/#!/passaggiohttp://passaggiowines.blogspot.com/

07 Oct

Whitney Thompson

Farm girl turned Thirsty Girl, Whitney Thompson is no stranger to the hard work and dedication. This work ethic towards agricultural products are the building blocks for beverages all Thirsty Girls crave. Whitney started her brewing career in Hannover, Germany as an apprentice at Ernst August Brauhaus. Her experience overseas launched a 5+ year brewing career that has sent her toting grain bags and hauling hoses at the likes of Appalachian, Troegs and now Victory Brewing Company in the US.

Recently, Whitney gravitated back towards her college love; microbiology. She now focuses on fermentation management and quality sensory evaluation at Victory as a Quality Assurance Manager. Aside from that, she is active in the Pink Boots Society, Master Brewers Association of the Americas and is a fully vetted beer judge for the Great American Beer Festival.

Along with enjoying great beers with friends and colleagues, Whitney loves helping women discover the wonderful world of beer whether it be through a beer dinner or a one-on-one interaction. Beer can add so much to your interaction with food, and your quality of life. There are a lot of great resources to lead you in the right direction: The Brewmaster’s Table by Garrett Oliver, www.beerdinners.com, http://www.beertown.org/education/pairing.html, and check out Victory at www.victorybeer.com.

Blog: victorybeerblog.com

Twitter: twitter.com/victorybeer

Facebook: facetbook.com/victorybeer

YouTube: youtube.com/victorybeer

Whitney Thompson

Quality Assurance Manager

Victory Brewing Company

420 Acorn Lane

Downingtown, PA 19335

610-514-7050

Tag Archives: women and wine