![]() ![]() Pruitt came into wine in a more traditional way: she started in the service industry while initially pursuing a degree in bio-medical science at Texas A&M, worked her way up from waitressing, to hosting, to wine and cocktails. Guipzot, with no previous experience, had an epiphany tasting wines on a trip to her husband's home state of Coahuila. But the two women's paths into the wine business could hardly be more different. Like Guipzot, she also has a love of Mexican wines. Sommelier Hailey Pruitt has directed the wine program at The Cellar and Mixtli for a year now.Ĭertified Sommelier Hailey Pruitt also recently celebrated her first year as director of the wine program at The Cellar and Mixtli, San Antonio's most ambitious Mexican restaurant. Casa Guipzot just completed a year in business. ![]() If Mexican wine doesn't become the next big thing, it won't be for lack of trying on Guipzot's part.Īnd the business appears to be more than a flash in the proverbial pan. ![]() Wine tours to Mexico and an upcoming program that combines a wine tasting with entertainment provided by a Mexican opera singer only further her goal of "curating experiences" around wine. To further Guipzot's commitment to diversity, she has also forged a partnership with Alamo Colleges to encourage Chicanos and women to get into wine. When I asked about price resistance, Guipzot explained that she's experienced little: "I just sold six bottles last night." Despite premium pricing, she also said that she thinks of her place - "the only exclusively Mexican wine shop in the U.S." - as being a community space, especially for women. It was cool, with hints of melon and green herbs - and she sells the bottle for $52. Then she'll produce something to taste - in my case, a chardonnay from Cava Quintanilla in San Luis Potosí. A guided tasting of three wines will set you back $35, and it's pretty much a guarantee that you will never have tasted any of the wines.Įven before the first cork is drawn, Guipzot, a third-generation West Sider, will quiz you about preferences, then regale you with a little Mexican wine lore: 15 states in Mexico are making wine, for example, and the oldest winery in the Americas is Casa Madero, dating from 1597. Beyond that, women not only purchase more wine than men at the retail level, but they're often the sellers and educators who help us understand more about the craft and what's now available on the market. In the wider wine world, women winemakers' names adorn bottles from Argentina to Australia, and the numbers of female certified sommeliers are rapidly increasing. ![]() For women, inheritance through the death of their husbands was the primary path to positions of power in the business up until the 1970s, not only in France but in the United States, according to industry sources. Globally, the estimates range from 10% to about 18%.Īnd historically, with the possible exception of three undaunted widows in post-Napoleonic France's Champagne region - Clicquot, Bollinger and Pommery are all prestige brands to this day - wine has long been a man's world. When challenged, she admitted that the observation is anecdotal - although she does attend many trade events in-country in the process of both educating herself and selecting Mexican wines to offer in San Antonio. Midway through a personalized tasting at Casa Guipzot, a West Side shop and tasting room dedicated exclusively to the wines of Mexico, Salena Guipzot casually dropped an intriguing comment: "The majority of winemakers now in Mexico are women." Salena Guipzot prepares to conduct a tasting of Mexican wines. ![]()
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