Things are going well for women’s representation in Mexico recently, with the first female president, second female mayor of Mexico City and historic numbers of women all taking political office in the last months. And the trend isn’t limited to politics: traveling through Baja California, you’ll also notice that many of the top wineries are led by passionate female winemakers, who lead both the production process and the businesses themselves.
More than a recent trend, this reality is slowly becoming tradition. But who are the women of Valle de Guadalupe and how did they become masters of their craft?
Laura Zamora: Matriarch of winemaking
If there is a matriarch to be found in Mexico’s premiere wine country, it’s Laura Zamora, who has been working in the industry for the past 48 years. Now head of her own project, Casa Zamora, she started at Santo Tomás winery as a lab tech when she was only 17 and worked her way up to head winemaker. She was the first woman in the entire country to manage a winery of that size. Zamora has a record number of liters of wine under her belt, a status rivaled only by two other winemakers in Baja, both men.
“I spent a lot of years doing grunt work under other winemakers, doing the work without getting the credit because I was a woman,” Zamora says, “A Uruguayan friend in the industry told me once, ‘Laura, you have everything against you: you don’t have a degree, you’re Mexican and you’re a woman.’ So, I thought, the only thing I can change is studying to get my degree; the other two things are permanent.”
So she studied while working, earning a degree as a lab tech in 1977, a bachelor’s in Gastronomy in 2019 and finally a master’s in Oenology in 2022. She thrived because she was curious, because she had the good fortune to be trained by several world-class winemakers, and because she shut out the rest of the world.
Cristina Pino: Doctor of the vine
Today, there’s a veritable sisterhood of winemakers in Baja. This group includes Cristina Pino, who took over for Zamora when she retired from Santo Tomas in 2019. Pino came from Spain 14 years ago and has one of the most impressive resumes of any winemaker in the region: bachelor’s degrees in Oenology and agricultural engineering, a Ph.D. in Oenology and a master’s degree in Viticulture. As laboratory head at Mexico’s second-largest vineyard, Pino is ensuring that many women will follow in her footsteps.
“My teams generally have always had lots of women in them,” Pino says. “I think we work really well together. We’re more practical, more direct, clearer, we don’t have our heads in the clouds. I always have women on my teams, from processing all the way up to operations. To see them really integrated into the team makes me really happy.”
Eileen Gregory: Champion of sustainability
Outside of mega-vineyards, many of the area’s small but important boutique wineries are also run by women. While Eileen Gregory’s husband Phil is the official winemaker of their vineyard Vena Cava, the place couldn’t run without her. They have an 8-room bed-and-breakfast, a massive organic garden, and, as of a few years back, a full-fledged restaurant on the property as well.
Eileen has been fundamental in shaping the way winemakers in Valle de Guadalupe think about sustainability since she moved here 20 years ago. Not only was the couple’s entire property built sustainably from the very beginning, Eileen has been organizing eight years of sustainability workshops for local winemakers and others interested in taking better care of Valle. She has also been one of the driving forces behind the Very Good Food Foundation, which helps local schools create school gardens to teach children about sustainable agriculture.
“When we first arrived, none of the men I spoke with would even acknowledge what I said without checking with my husband to ensure he was in agreement with my comments,” Gregory says, “Fast forward to now and it is very common to see women running businesses and being treated with the respect they deserve.”
“Women are much more likely to experiment and create products and spaces that are attractive, innovative and welcoming,” Gregory tells me, adding that women in Baja have reshaped the way wine is made here too, “Twenty years ago, it was largely only men in Mexico who drank wine and they tended to only drink full-bodied reds made from well known grapes. When women started drinking wine, whites, rosés and sparkling wines became tremendously popular. Women in the business of winemaking were the first to see, encourage and act on the new opportunity.”
Maria Cantarero: Philosopher of the grape
María Benítez Cantarero, who also started a second life with her husband when they moved here 10 years ago from Mexico City, is the powerhouse behind Clos de los Tres Cantos, the couple’s winery. She has meticulously chosen the varietals that they grow based on deep research of their land, in addition to incorporating regenerative agricultural practices like building a wetland at the base of their grape fields and planting trees and native species alongside their vines.
María says that since moving to Mexico from Madrid she’s been lucky to work for companies where gender equality was important and has faced few barriers as a woman in business here. But, she laughs, waiters still bring the wine to her husband to taste, even though of the two she has infinitely more wine knowledge. She agrees things are changing in the region, “if nothing else because there are lots of women in Valle, young women, now making wine.”
Kris Magnussen: Developing Valle from a woman’s perspective
One of those younger women is Kris Magnussen, whose family has been running Lechuza winery for the last 23 years. A single mom in her 40s originally from San Diego, California, Magnussen took over complete management of the winery when her father passed away in 2017. She says she could have never survived those first several years on her own without the community that embraced her.
“I don’t know what it is about Valle de Guadalupe, but it attracts another caliber of human being. I remember after my father passed, having the level of outreach from people saying what do you need, how can I help, how can I make sure that this isn’t your end. Nobody had to do that for me. I’m an immigrant, you know? I could have easily faded away and have been just a blip on the radar.”
Magnussen believes that the leading women of the valley are looking at development — their own and the region’s — in a unique way.
“There is such a huge lead of women right now,” she says, “and I think women have this beautiful, maternal aspect in which we are trying to incorporate sustainable business practices, not just farming practices. We’re looking out for future generations, encouraging higher education, we’re trying to build the community around us to support us so we’re not alone, and in return there’s a lot of grace. [We’re asking:] how can we make sure that our footprint is bigger in regards to the success as a region rather than just our own personal gain?”
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of “Mexico City Streets: La Roma.” Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at mexicocitystreets.com.
