Saint Helena, CA — Napa Valley Wine Library’s first virtual “Books on Wine” program will feature authors Lucia Albino Gilbert and John H Gilbert and their book, Women Winemakers: Personal Odysseys, on Thursday, August 13 at 5:30 pm (PST) via Zoom.
The authors will be joined by five of the nearly 150 winemakers interviewed for their book. All are from the Napa Valley, and each will taste and discuss one of their wines during the program. The featured winemakers are Sandi Belcher of ARNS, Cathy Corison of Corison, Sally Johnson Blum of Pride Mountain Vineyards, Pam Starr of Crocker & Starr, and Celia Welch of Corra Wines.
The Gilberts research into women winemakers in California led them to interviewees throughout the world as they sought the criteria for becoming a woman winemaker in what has been a man’s world. Globally, 10% of today’s winemakers are women, although 20% of the Napa Valley wines poured at the Napa Valley Wine Library’s Annual Tasting is made by women.
As Lucia Gilbert expresses the purpose of their book, “Their stories will inspire current and future winemakers, as well as educated wine enthusiasts about what enables the careers of women who make wine.” The four chief enablers are one’s own family, or having an acute sensory awareness, or a deep appreciation for science, or formal training in winemaking.
Local businesses Napa Bookmine and Acme Fine Wines are coordinating book and wine sales. Acme has requested wine orders to be in by August 3 to assure receipt of wines in time for the program. For further information and to reserve a place, buy one or more wines and purchase a book, please go to www.napawinelibrary.com
About the Napa Valley Wine Library:
Founded in 1963, by food and wine luminaries: author MFK Fisher, marketing pioneer Francis Gould of Charles Krug, printer/educator James E. Beard, and U.C. Davis Professor Maynard Amerine, the Napa Valley Wine Library collects, preserves, and disseminates historic and contemporary information regarding viticulture, enology and wine lore, particularly as it pertains to Napa Valley. Housed in its own wing of the St. Helena Public Library, the collection is open to all members of the wine community – winery professionals, winegrowers, educators, journalists, wine enthusiasts, sommeliers, and anyone with a curiosity for the art and science of wine as an integral part of our culture, society and daily lives.
