In celebration of International Women’s Day, we are highlighting three female producers from our wine and cheese shelves who rock our world!
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Martha Stoumen learned the ways of the wine world while studying agriculture at a Tuscan farm & learning center after completing her undergraduate degree. While there, she spent the majority of her time in the vineyard – learning about winemaking from the ground up – rather than in the winery. During this time working not only on the vineyard, but with the rest of the farm she learned to view grape growing and winemaking as a part of a whole, rather than the singular purpose of a vineyard. Martha makes terroir driven wines that highlight California and the responsible farming practices she upholds. We currently carry one of Martha Stoumen’s cult favorites, Post Flirtation White. It’s sundrenched and fruit forward, rocketing you to the Northern California coast. Whiffs of honeydew, kiwi, salty air and light citrus. Post Flirt pairs perfectly with early spring Sundays and optimism about what’s to come.
Krista Scruggs is originally from Fresno, California in the heart of the state’s farming belt and, like so many of our favorite wine makers, considers herself a farmer first and foremost. After nearly 10 years of cutting her teeth in the wine industry she ventured to Vermont to start Zafa Wines in 2018. Zafa is women-owned, maintains a staff that is minimum 85% women and purposefully provides opportunity to qualified women and people of color. Lately, she’s teamed up with Shacksbury Ciders to create Co Cellars, an experimental collaboration that creates vinous ciders; basically local apples and Zafa grapes co-fermented to make electric, “genre bending beverages.” Luckily for us, two of those Co Cellars vinous ciders have found their way onto our shelves. Melon Drop and Pretty in Pink are a pick your own adventure in a can with zero bad outcomes. Each one is chock full of bursting fruit and funk; zippy and complex juices that take your palate for a ride. Cool kid vibes abound.
Mary Keehn is the person to thank for popularizing ripened goat cheese in America. Back in the ‘70s, Mary was a self-proclaimed hippie looking for healthy milk options for her children. Using her neighbor’s goats, she wound up making cheese from the surplus milk and after a few years, Cypress Grove Cheese was born. On her way home from a trip to France, a dream of a soft-ripened goat cheese with vegetable ash in the middle inspired the now-famous Humboldt Fog. The Fog is a bloomy rind cheese with a gooey creamline over a mushroomy, herbaceous paste. Mary is also the brains behind some of our other favorites like Truffle Tremor and Midnight moon. While she is now fully retired, her passion and heart have shaped Cypress Grove into what it is today, and she still remains the queen of NorCal goat cheese.