Women in wine to watch

Having rounded up our top 50 most powerful women in wine over the past few weeks, we wanted to alert you to our women to watch in 2013.

Gloria Collell of Freixenet

Hot on the heels of our top 50 are a slew of energetic go-getters hungry for their time in the wine spotlight.

Among them is Ntsiki Biyela, South Africa’s first black female winemaker.

Based at Stellenbosch estate Stellekaya since 2005, though cautious of the pioneer tag, the dynamic young winemaker hopes to have helped pave the way for future black female winemakers to emerge in the region.

In 2009, she was named South Africa’s Woman Winemaker of the Year.

Another South African to watch is viticulturist Rosa Kruger, who has been taken under Swartland pioneer Eben Sadie’s wing and primed for greatness.

She currently consults for Solms-Delta and Porseleinberg, Boekenhoutskloof’s Swartland project run by renegade winemaker Callie Louw.

Over in the UK, Spanish wine specialist Sarah Jane Evans MW is hotly tipped to become the next chairman of the Institute of Masters of wine when the current chairman, Jean-Michel Valette MW, steps down.

Meanwhile, MW student and head wine buyer for Selfridges Dawn Davies was a pivotal player in getting the law amended to allow retailers to serve wine by the sip.

Tamra Washington of Yealands Estate

Her indefatigable lobbying saw her win a five-year legal battle this January to allow 25ml measures to be served at Selfridges’ Wonder Bar and other restaurants and bars across the UK.

Over in West Sussex, Cherie Spriggs caused a stir this year when she declared she would not be bottling a 2012 vintage at her English sparkling estate Nyetimber, as the quality of the grapes was not up to her high standards.

Another sparkling winemaker to watch is Freixenet’s Gloria Collell, who recently launched her own “Mia” range of still wines, including a Tempranillo and a white blend of Cava grapes Xarel.lo, Macabeo and Parallada.

And in sparkling wine’s heartland, Venezuelan-born Margareth Henriquez is quickly climbing the ladder at LVMH as president and CEO of Krug.

Across the globe in Argentina, Laura Catena, general manager at Bodega Catena Zapata, is no doubt being primed to one day take over the estate from her father Nicolas.

Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, Tamra Washington is helping to put Marlborough reds on the New Zealand wine map at Yealands Estate.

And finally, blazing a trail in Asia is Cambridge graduate Fongyee Walker, Mainland China’s only MW student.

Walker co-runs Beijing-based Dragon Pheonix Fine Wine Consulting, China’s most successful WSET provider and an independent consultancy offering advice for international wine companies looking to crack the Chinese market.