By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Severine Pinte, is one of the world’s leading wine makers and is right here in the South Okanagan. She is the Winemaker, Viticulturist and Managing Partner for Le Vieux Pin Winery and LaStella Winery.
Pinte is an amazing example of a successful woman in the wine industry, which still, like so many industries, suffers from a gender gap particularly when it comes to positions of power in the higher levels of the business.
With the title of Winemaker, the statistics are pretty stark with only 17 per cent of them being women, and over 82 per cent being men.
She noted to the Times Chronicle that it is an evolving business and hopefully there will start to be more women in the industry. That is why she highlighted that it is important to shine a light on the gender gap and for women to have the chance to see others who have been successful.
Pinte further appreciated that a lot of times it does take people seeing the trailblazers, and successful people who came before them to see that it is indeed not only possible, but attainable.
Her advice to women trying to make it in the industry is “observe, don’t be shy, just be yourself, go in there and knock on doors, and just ask to learn. Don’t be afraid to work hard, because unfortunately we are still at that point where we have to work a little bit harder to get where we are, but this is a very rewarding field.”
Severine Pinte
It is interesting that women are underrepresented in the wine industry since, as Pinte mentioned, and there are studies to back it up, women generally have a better sense of smell and taste for wine than men and therefore should be welcomed into the industry.
“I was never treated differently and I survived,” she explained. Saying she survived is a humble understatement as she had 14 harvests of international winemaking experience and eight years of vineyard management before coming to Canada 13 years ago.
She has her Masters in Viticulture (grape-growing) and Oenology (winemaking) from the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier (ENSAM). She has worked in Bordeaux, experienced a harvest in Western Australia, and more.
She noted Canada is generally more inviting and accepting then other places in the world but the gender gap is still present and is a deeply entrenched problem world-wide.
When talking about why people, but women in particular should enter the industry, she responded “it is a gift, because there is so much that mother nature is giving us in terms of richness, and stories, and challenges, at the same time, we just have to adapt all of the time.”
“I am an engineer, specializing in viticulture and oenology, so I have a lot of science and technical knowledge but every year since I have been here in Canada, the last 13 years, I have never managed a vineyard in the same way, every year mother nature is giving us something different. So for me it is a gift. Making wine is a little bit of creating a painting or a work of art, it’s unique every year. Mother nature is in the soil and the climate, just there to participate to help me do that.”
When asked about how vineyards and wineries could make more room for women, Pinte pointed towards having flexible hours especially when it comes to women taking care of their families.
