The three women winemakers we are featuring this week include a pioneering Austrian who is one of the few women making wine in her country, an Italian that has fulfilled her great grandfather’s dream, and a traveling French woman with a long family pedigree who is making iconic wines at wineries that are among the most revered in Oregon and France. Read about their stories and grab a bottle or two of their wines!

Weingut Birgit Eichinger: Birgit Eichinger

Birgit Eichinger has made a name for herself as a world class wine producer and one of only a few women vintners in Austria to do so. She began her wine-making career experimenting with 3.5 hectares from her parents’ business in the Kamptal region and it didn’t take long for Birgit to build on this success and establish a winery of her own in 1992. Standing at the foot of the Gaisberg Mountain, the winery is ultramodern and vinification takes place in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks with the emphasis being placed on the purity of the fruit. The vineyard area has expanded and she now sources fruit from more than 9 hectares from the best traditional sites in the Strass. Birgit’s wines are highly elegant, expressive wines with great personal character.

Weingut Birgit Eichinger Gruner Veltliner $18.99/Sale $16.99

Weingut Birgit Eichinger Riesling $23.99/Sale $21.59

Anna Maria Abbona: Anna Maria Abbona

Anna’s great-grandfather Giuseppe cultivated the vineyards as a sharecropper: his dream was to own the land but he died too soon to achieve this, so her grandfather Angelo had to take over. In 1936 Angelo started planting a vineyard called Maioli and that was the beginning. Anna’s father Giuseppe followed: it was the time of great industrialization but he didn’t move to the city like most people he knew. They chose to work in a factory but he stayed with his vineyards, looking after his father’s as well as buying more land for new vineyards. In the years following the wine was of poor quality so her parents gave up wine making, and sold the grapes to the nearest wine cooperative.

The change in the company took place in 1989 when her father announced his intention to uproot some vines. At that time Anna and her husband were not in the wine business. They decided to return home with the object of producing only quality wine and now they have their sons working with them in the business. The main objective is high quality wines.

Anna Maria Abbona Maioli Dolcetto $24.99/Sale $22.49

Joseph Drouhin (France) & Domaine Drouhin Oregon: Véronique Drouhin

Véronique spends half of her time in Oregon at Domaine Drouhin Oregon and half of her time in France overseeing the vinification at Joseph Drouhin.  The Joseph Drouhin winery was founded by its namesake in 1880 in Beaune, France and it has been in the family since. They have holdings in some of the great vineyards in Burgundy but also make incredibly high quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at great prices.  Domaine Drouhin Oregon was founded by Véronique and her father Robert in 1988 where she has been the head winemaker ever since. DDO (as many affectionately call it) has garnered much praise for the wines elegant, Burgundian style, and has become a benchmark style for Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

Domaine Drouhin Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 750 ml $45.99/Sale $41.39

Domaine Drouhin Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 357 ml $23.99/Sale $21.59

Joseph Drouhin La Foret Chardonnay $16.99/Sale $15.29

Joseph Drouhin Macon-Villages $14.99/Sale $13.49

Joseph Drouhin La Foret Pinot Noir $17.99/Sale $15.99

Joseph Drouhin Chambolle-Musigny $55.99/Sale $50.39