For some, winemaking is a calling. Loredana Vivera realized hers while overlooking her family’s vineyards on Mount Etna in Sicily. She’d go on to practice her calling at the family’s Vivera Winery, crafting numerous Sicilian wines including the “Altrove” Sicilia Bianco, which I look forward to sharing with other women in wine.Loredana and I recently discussed her winemaking background in a transatlantic email conversation. The Vivera family purchased an estate near Mount Etna in 2002, but this was hardly the beginning of women in wine for the Viveras. Loredana’s mother had vineyards for generations within her family. The 2002 purchase was the realization of a dream, and they settled into the northeastern side of the volcano, building a winery there.The whole family got involved in Vivera Winery, but there was a point where Loredana would realize her own calling as a winemaker:“There is a particular moment when I understood that it was my passion. I have always appreciated wines but one day I was in a vineyard of Carricante on Mount Etna (carricante is the grape for the Etna White DOC) and I tasted a grape. In that moment, in that small berry, I felt like I could see the development and total potential of that grape into a wine, a great wine and it gave to me an incredible and strong emotion; it was in that specific moment that I understood all the passion that I fell for my job, for the wine, and how lucky I am to love so much what I am doing.”Loredana would become the oenologist at Vivera Winery, crafting the native Sicilian grapes, like Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Carricante, all grown organically on the high altitude and volcanic soils of Mount Etna. She is part of a growing number of female winemakers around the globe, which does continue to come with its challenges.I asked Loredana to share with me her experience as a woman in the wine industry:“As a woman with a lot of men working with you, sometimes with old mentality, you need to demonstrate to have a very high knowledge of the grape and the wine. Nevertheless, when they understand and trust you, you will work even better because probably women have more flexibility and we are more sensitive.”An achievement oriented attitude seems to be the main ingredient for all the successful female winemakers that I’ve encountered through the years. I was particularly amused and inspired by an interview I watched recently with Loredana by Master of Wine Debra Meiburg, watch interview here. When asked how she faces challenges, she replied: “Problems? All problems have solutions.”Her Vivera “Altrove” Sicilia Bianco IGT 2014 is awesome. This wine comes from 100% Certified Organic vineyards. It’s a blend of the very familiar Chardonnay with the native Sicilian grapes of Catarratto and Inzolia. It’s simply delicious… with a juicy yet mineral palate, with citrus, herbs and floral notes.The “Altrove” is the perfect wine for a group of friends. Loredena shared what this wine means to her: “For me, Altrove is the wine for the evening with my girlfriends. We meet and we drink all together in happiness. I feel it as the wine of friendship, lightness and laughs.”
