It is a cold and calm Tuesday evening in Inner West Sydney. Foot traffic is low on Marrickville Road, a sign of tight schedules even before the lockdown; few people walked past Where’s Nick wine bar and peeked inside to see the crowd of women gathered here – sommeliers, wine buyers,
retailers, wineries – sip drinks, talk boutique.

The atmosphere inside is a mixture of emotions. There is excitement, enthusiasm, frustration, anger. The members of the group take turns to talk, share experiences, floating ideas. Most have something to say. They all want something to change.

Outside, a sign hangs on the door. “Closed: Revolution in progress. “

“It was very moving,” recalls Ella Stening, a 29-year-old wine merchant who helped organize this educational event. “I felt very emotional for a while afterwards. I always knew that most women felt the same as me, I understood that most felt marginalized or unheard, but seeing so many people around me who were motivated to change that, I felt that
immense gratitude. I felt happy.

A few months later, this revolution has a name, logo and mission statement. What started less than a year ago as a series of social dinners for sommeliers and wine retailers who thought they hadn’t found a home in Sydney’s industry has turned into Women and Revolution, a national collective of some of the biggest – and also the smallest – names in hospitality, women who choose wine and run floors at restaurants like Quay, Bennelong, Rockpool, Merivale and more, and work for the largest alcohol retailers and distributors in the country. Several leading Victorian sommeliers and winemakers are now part of the 75 members, members also from South Australia and Queensland.

The stated goal of Women and Revolution (WaR) is to disrupt the traditionally male-dominated wine industry, to ensure that women can forge careers and achieve positions of influence, to educate and empower them. ways to challenge established gatekeepers, like the Court of Master Sommeliers, the revered institution whose US branch has recently been embroiled in sexual harassment charges.

“We want women to start getting louder in the industry,” says Bridget Raffal, inaugural president of WaR. “And we’re going to help them do it.

“We want women to start getting louder in the industry. And we’ll help them do it.

I am seated in front of four of the founders of the association: Raffal, 33, former head sommelier at the three-hat restaurant in Sydney Sixpenny, now bar manager at Where’s Nick; Stening, who runs the Native Drops wine store in Surry Hills; Jacqueline Turner, 37, former head sommelier at Chin Chin, now independent wine buyer; and Saranya Kundasamy, 26, a relative newcomer who cut her teeth at The Oak Barrel wine store in 2020.

To be frank, interviewing four people on Zoom is usually a mistake. It’s too much. However, the history of Women and the Revolution is a history of solidarity; I want to understand this spirit. And now it’s beaming at me from the screen. When a woman speaks, the others nod. They call out to each other, they bounce off each other. There is an energy, a purpose. I’ve been following this story from the very beginning – Bridget Raffal is my partner’s sister – but I’m still curious where it came from.

“Historically, there has been a gender imbalance in wine, and despite what industry professionals say, there is still a gender imbalance.”

“If I’m talking about the restaurant scene,” Raffal says, “a lot of the fine dining and buyer positions are held by guys. All the opportunities that I have had in wine, I have had them because I worked at Sixpenny. It opens a lot of doors. But all the business events I went to were just guys. So I was there, I was in a good position, I was educated and trained, but I didn’t meet other women. And it was loneliness.

Women, of course, exist in the wine world. They make wine, they buy wine, they organize lists and sell wine. Some of the most important positions in the industry, head sommelier positions in large restaurant groups, are held by women. However, Sarah Andrew, co-chair of Sommeliers Australia, a leading education and certification body, agrees that significant challenges remain.

“Historically, there has been a gender imbalance, and despite what many industry professionals might say, there is still a gender imbalance,” she says.

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“I speak to many large national restaurant groups, and some of them were doing a great job of addressing that imbalance and had almost achieved parity at the front-line management level – not at the top level, but they are. ‘addressed this. Since the pandemic, however, it’s gone out of whack, it’s back to what it was a few years ago. It is now dominated by men in key management positions. “

The problem, say the founders of WaR, is the lack of established pathways for women to access these positions. To do this, they need better access to mentors and more exposure at the upper echelons of the industry.

This will be a priority for the group as it rolls out its programs as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Think of networking events and mentor matches, courses in wine evaluation, coaching for scholarships and competitions, education on various wine regions presented by female winemakers, and perhaps more importantly. , to masterclasses that open doors that would have been closed before.

These would offer, among other things, to women sommeliers an exposure to the “three great” wines of the world: Bordeaux, Burgundy and Barolo. This is where the real money is spent in Australia, and where the cachet is earned. Seating at commercial events that provide exposure to this trio, however, is limited and closely guarded.

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“If you can’t speak knowledgeably about these three wines,” says Raffal, “it’s kind of like, ‘Do you know something? And it is really the wine industry that is so dominated by men.

I’m learning that each of the women in front of me can recall a series of seemingly insignificant moments that led to the realization that they were not playing on level ground.

For Raffal, her exam to become a certified sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) is still fresh in her head. This is an extremely important step for anyone aspiring to a position of power in wine, a process in which judges criticize every element of a candidate’s skills, the ability to identify a wine – grape variety, region and vintage – by simple taste and aroma, by their perfect presentation, opening and pouring of a bottle. The judges are master sommeliers, the best certification, of which there are only a few dozen women in the world.

“There isn’t a professional wardrobe designed for women for this job, so I was like, ‘Great, I’m going to wear this business skirt.’ On examination, they said, “Oh, you’re going to a party, aren’t you? “”

“When you attend these exams,” Raffal explains, “you are supposed to dress formally, wear a costume. But I wore a skirt in mine because it was the only item of clothing I had with a pocket big enough to put a wine knife and a napkin, which you need to have for the exam. There isn’t really a professional wardrobe designed for women for this job, so I was like, “Great, I’m going to wear this business skirt. And on examination they said, “Oh, you’re going to a party, aren’t you?” “”

On the computer screen in front of me, several eyes roll with sympathy. Turner explodes: “What? What? “Raffal smirked:” I succeeded, but it was written: ‘Could dress more professionally.’ “

At the end of last year, the American branch of CMS was rocked by a scandal. Twenty-one women who were studying with her educational unit went to The New York Times to accuse many master sommeliers of harassment, manipulation or assault. Resignations followed.

Franck Moreau, director of CMS Oceania, master sommelier and beverage director of Justin Hemmes’ powerful Merivale group, says the culture is very different in Australia. “You have to understand,” he said, “CMS is two different operations: you have CMS America and CMS Europe.
We as CMS Oceania are affiliated with CMS Europe. In Europe there has never been a problem, we do not tolerate anything like this.

Is sexual harassment a problem in the wider Sydney hotel industry? “Not at all,” said Moreau. “If I heard something like that, I would be shocked.”

The founders of Women and Revolution disagree.

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“I can’t think of a single woman who hasn’t been sexually harassed at work, in a bar or a restaurant,” says Stening. Sarah Andrew agrees: “I had some very uncomfortable conversations with the members; I’ve had people tell me stories that I wish I hadn’t known. But they came to see me because they have no one else to turn to. So, I am aware of horrible events that have happened to people who are absolutely sexual harassment. And it still exists. “

This is why WaR was formed: to help women make their voices heard, not only against harassment and sexism, but on wine culture in general. Get
people – industry types, but also diners and regular drinkers – used to hearing women talk about wine in an authoritarian manner. It’s the revolution – and it’s a work in progress.

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