Women, Wine & Influence
These women are leaving their mark on Philadelphia’s drinking culture
IT’S A TOUGH CALL. When writing a piece about women in wine, do you focus on the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry? Do you point out a recent Wine Spectator magazine announcement about California wine reviewers with side-by-side photos of three middle-aged white men? On the other hand, do you mention that in Wine Enthusiast’s 2017 list of 40 under 40 Tastemakers (from the wine, beer and spirits world), 17 of the 40 tastemakers are women, a respectable percentage?
Or, do you recognize that, although all of these factors may be part of the story of women in wine in 2018, each woman has a story to tell about how she fell in love with wine, and it’s best to allow her to tell her own story?
Storytelling wins. Meet three wine experts who are shaping the way Philadelphia sips right now.
Bringing the World to Philadelphia
JILL WEBER
Owner, Jet Wine Bar, South Street
Jill Weber, who opened Jet Wine Bar on South Street in 2010, earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her immersion in that field piqued an interest in archaeology, which in turn led her to regions where there are really good wines made from “weird grapes,” as Weber puts it. In countries like Lebanon, Turkey and Syria, she drank wines that she couldn’t find when she was back in Philadelphia.
Before opening Jet Wine Bar, Weber completed the intermediate course at the Wine School of Philadelphia, where she had her first structured introduction to wine language. “During the class, I realized it piggybacked on my travels,” says Weber. Her love of travel, the exotic and history all came together in wine.
So she, along with her husband, Evan Malone, opened Jet Wine Bar. “We were among the first in the city to bring in Moroccan, Georgian and Albanian wines,” says Weber. Jet Wine Bar was also among the first to offer wines from now-hip regions like Croatia, Slovenia and Turkey.
Jet’s wine menu changes frequently, but it’s common to see Blaufränkisch from Austria, Grechetto from Italy, or Mavrud from Bulgaria—examples of the “weird grapes” Weber brings in—alongside Pinot Noir from Washington or Chardonnay from France as choices by the glass.
Weber is also on the board of Philly Wine Week, an event started in 2014 to bring the local wine community together and increase Philadelphia’s visibility as a wine drinking city. Held in early spring, the week boasts hundreds of wine events held at dozens of locations throughout the city, including Jet Wine Bar.
This spring, Jet offered events like Wine and Jerky Night and Rainbow Wine Night. On Rainbow night, wine lovers were introduced to wines of various hues, including green, orange, black and pink.
Weber says her biggest challenge as a wine professional is getting her hands on the wines she wants to share with those who walk through the doors of her bar.
“There is no other issue that is remotely as challenging as the laws,” says Weber, referring to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which limits the selection of wines that can be sold and sets prices that cause wine to be 40 percent more expensive in Philadelphia restaurants than across the bridge in New Jersey.
“You gotta be out of your mind to open a wine bar here,” Weber says.
Still, she’s glad she did it.
Jet Wine Bar
1525 South St.
215.735.1116
jetwinebar.com
Invisible Influence
LATOYA WOODLAND
Sales Consultant, Lauber Fine Wines & Craft Spirits, a division of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, King of Prussia
When LaToya Woodland studied marketing at Temple University, she worked in restaurants to help cover tuition. The wine reps who would come in to teach about food and wine pairings intrigued her, and she wondered how she could make wine a career. Woodland read every book she could get her hands on, found a mentor and decided to enter the field.
Today, she combines her marketing know-how with her passion for wine as a sales consultant for Lauber Fine Wines & Craft Spirits, a job she’s had for the past year and a half. Her job is to walk into a restaurant or bar, find out the establishment’s needs and sell wines that meet those needs. She’s the wine professional you rarely see, but her influence shapes wine menus in restaurants and bars throughout the city.
On a typical day, Woodland—who has earned her WSET III, an advanced wine professional certification—starts her morning checking emails, and then it’s on to researching various wine producers and regions. She may check the websites SevenFifty Daily or VinePair for industry insights. Then she hits the road.
“I go to appointments with buyers and sommeliers with handpicked wine or spirits for each account,” she says.
She’ll host tastings for the clients to expose them to wines they don’t know. The end goal, of course, is to get them to buy wines from her to sell in their restaurants and bars. When they do buy, sometimes they’ll have her come in and teach classes to the staff to familiarize them with the wines.
“It’s fun to expose the buyers and the public to cool, funky wines—things they aren’t used to. I get to share my passion and knowledge,” Woodland says.
She’s seen a change in what restaurants are buying and people are drinking in the past five years.
“When I first started, I saw the same thing in every place,” she says. “Now, things are a little bit ritzier. Winemaking styles are way more innovative, and people are looking to do different things.”
“Restaurants are all over the place,” she says. “People are starting to get into Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon versus Napa Cab. A lot are looking for natural and biodynamic wines—funkier things that are pretty cool.”
One challenge of Woodland’s job is making sure everyone, from her employers to her buyers, is pleased with the wine she sells.
“At the end of the day, the consumer wants the best tasting wine at the best price. They want great value. It’s my job to get bothends to meet. It becomes difficult sometimes,” she says.
The joys of the job outweigh the challenges, though.
“One of the reasons I wanted to stay on the East Coast is because I have the chance to shape the East Coast industry.”
Redefining Local Wine
VIRGINIA MITCHELL
Winemaker Galer Estate, Kennett Square
As a food science major at Penn State, Virginia Mitchell thought she’d go into nutrition after graduation, but that changed when her lab research ended up being in wine.
“I did a summer co-op at Mazza Vineyards in Erie,” says Mitchell. When she went back in the fall to help with the harvest, she was hooked.
Back at Penn State, she became the administrative assistant to oenologist Denise Gardener, who helped her develop her palate. After graduation, she returned to Mazza as an assistant winemaker, spent three months in Australia at Two Hands and eventually landed at Galer Estate in Kennett Square. The winery is located behind Longwood Gardens and is “kind of a nice secret,” according to Mitchell.
“One of the reasons I wanted to stay on the East Coast is because I have the chance to shape the East Coast industry,” says Mitchell. Unlike the West Coast wine industry, which can be set in its ways, up and down the burgeoning wine regions off the Atlantic, winemakers are still in exploration mode. They’re learning which grapes grow the best in the rainy, humid climate.
They’re willing to work with lesser-known varieties. They’re innovative.
If the awards Mitchell’s wines have won are any indication, she is helping to improve the quality and reputation of Pennsylvania and East Coast wines.
Her 2015 Cabernet Franc, produced from grapes grown solely in Galer’s estate vineyards, won double gold at the 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. A double gold is given to a wine that every judge on the panel rates as gold. Winning the award gives a winery some serious bragging rights.
While Mitchell is proud of the award, she knows she can achieve more. Galer’s owners, Lele and Brad Galer, have given her full reign, and she’s experimenting with every new growing season.
“I get to do new projects. Winemaking is kind of a science project because there’s a lot of problem solving,” she says. “It’s the fun part of it.”
One of the ways Mitchell would like to shape East Coast wine is to help move many of its wine drinkers away from the belief that they like only sweet wines.
“You don’t need to be a sweet wine drinker,” says Mitchell. “When people come to Galer, they get over it because we don’t have sugary wines.”
What Galer does have is well-crafted, fruit-forward wines that appeal to many sweet wine drinkers once they have the chance to learn about them—wines like the Grüner that sells so well at Longwood Gardens, Vidal Blanc and rosé made from a blend of red grapes.
Galer Estate Vineyard & Winery
700 Folly Hill Rd., Kennett Square
484.899.8013
galerestate.com
