Raise a Glass to the Women Who Shaped Your Cellar
Share
An International Women's Day Wine List — With Opinions
By Cris Lu | Our Wine Community by Corney & Barrow
Here's an uncomfortable truth about wine: it's an industry that has spent centuries talking about terroir and tradition while conveniently overlooking the women who shaped both. The land was farmed by families, not just by fathers. The cellars were managed by widows when the men went to war, or died, or simply weren't up to the job. And some of the most consequential decisions in modern winemaking, the ones that changed how the entire world thinks about viticulture, were made by women who were told, in various polite and impolite ways, that they didn't belong.
So, this International Women's Day, we are not doing the soft-focus listicle. We're talking about specific women whose work you can taste in your glass right now from our selection, available in Singapore. And we are going to say what we think about the wines.
Anne-Claude Leflaive | Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet
The Woman Who Bet the Farm and Won
Let's start with the most consequential decision in modern White Burgundy.
In the early 1990s, Anne-Claude Leflaive began converting Domaine Leflaive to biodynamics. At the time, this was roughly as popular in Puligny-Montrachet as announcing you'd started consulting a ouija board for pruning advice. Biodynamics — cow horns, silica preparations, lunar calendars, all sounded medieval, possibly deranged. Her own family had reservations. The agricultural establishment was actively hostile.
She did it anyway. First with trials on select parcels, then across the entire domaine by 1997. The soils came alive. The vines grew healthier, more resistant, more expressive. And the wines? The wines became transcendent. Leflaive's Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles, Clavoillon, Les Folatières. These became reference points not just for Puligny, but for Chardonnay, full stop.
Anne-Claude passed away in 2015, at just 59. But her legacy radiates across everything we are about to discuss. Every organic vineyard in Burgundy. Every biodynamic estate that now commands the highest prices and the loudest critical acclaim. Every winemaker who talks about "living soils" and "vine health" is, whether they acknowledge it or not, walking a path she cleared.
The domaine today, under Brice de La Morandière (Anne-Claude's nephew), maintains her biodynamic principles with absolute conviction. And the wines remain among the most sought-after whites on earth.
What to pour:
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 2022
The village wine that drinks like a Premier Cru at estates with less philosophy. Pure, focused, with that signature Leflaive luminosity.
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er Cru 2022
Borders Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. If you can find allocation, don't think twice.
Mâcon-Verzé, Domaines Leflaive 2022
The democratic entry point. Biodynamic Chardonnay from the Mâconnais that shows Leflaive's hand doesn't lose its touch at more accessible price points.
And don't miss the connection to the Loire: Clau de Nell, purchased by the Leflaive-Jacques family in 2008, is farmed biodynamically. Anne-Claude's influence extending well beyond the Côte de Beaune. The Chenin Blanc and Anjou Cabernet Franc are brilliant expressions of that same philosophy.
Giulia Negri | Giulia Negri, Serradenari, Piedmont
The Self-Proclaimed 'Barologirl' Who Planted Pinot Noir on a Barolo Hill
If Anne-Claude Leflaive represents tradition reimagined, Giulia Negri is pure creative disruption.
Giulia is the latest generation of a family estate stretching back 150 years in the village of La Morra. She calls herself "Barologirl" without a trace of irony. Her estate, Serradenari, sits at the crest of the Barolo zone, the highest point, with views across nearly the entire appellation and truffle forests closing in from all sides. The name literally means "the ridge of money." And here's the thing that makes Burgundy enthusiasts do a double take: alongside her Nebbiolo, Giulia has planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Obsession with Pinot Noir. A Barolo hill. In Piedmont.
This is the kind of move that either makes you a genius or gets you laughed out of the consortium. In Giulia's case, it is the former. She's obsessed with Burgundy. Her wines reference it constantly, in their restraint, their emphasis on terroir expression over raw power, and their insistence that elegance is not the opposite of concentration but its highest form.
Her Barolos, La Tartufaia, Serradenari, and the stunning Marassio, are becoming more polished with every vintage while retaining an innate honesty that you can't fake. These are not blockbuster wines. They are wines that make you lean in, pay attention, and come back for another glass.
What to pour:
The entry-level Barolo that punches above its weight. Sandy soils give lift and aromatic intensity.
Fresh, elegant, easy-drinking wine. If you are curious about Giulia's style but not ready for Barolo just yet, start here.
Agnès Paquet | Domaine Agnès Paquet, Auxey-Duresses
The Quiet Revolutionary of the Hautes Côtes
If Leflaive and Negri come with established fame and column inches, Agnès Paquet represents something equally important: the woman doing extraordinary work in an appellation nobody is looking at.
Auxey-Duresses is the village that serious Burgundy lovers whisper about. Tucked behind Meursault and Monthélie, it doesn't have the name recognition of its neighbours. It doesn't command their prices. And that, frankly, is why you should be paying attention because the wines are exceptional, and the value is real.
Agnès farms 13 hectares across the Côte de Beaune and Hautes Côtes de Beaune, with Auxey-Duresses at the heart of her portfolio. Her approach is meticulous: hand-harvested in small 12kg crates for the reds, sorted on a vibrating table, transported to vat by gravity without a pump, fermented with indigenous yeasts, and with inputs reduced to the absolute minimum. This is as close to "nothing added, nothing taken away" as winemaking gets.
What strikes you in the glass is purity. Her Bourgogne Aligoté, Le Clou et La Plume is a reminder that Aligoté, in the right hands, is not the poor cousin of Chardonnay but a grape of real personality and verve. Her Hautes Côtes de Beaune whites and reds offer altitude-influenced freshness that makes them enormously versatile at the table. And the Auxey-Duresses Rouge Les Hoz is the kind of wine that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about Burgundy's "lesser" villages.
What to pour:
Bourgogne Aligoté Le Clou et La Plume 2022
Bright, vivid, with real cut and personality. One of the best-value bottles in our cellar.
Bourgogne Rouge Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2022
Chardonnay with altitude freshness.
The Women Behind the Scenes
While we are here, four more names you should know. Women who may not always be on the label but whose influence shapes the wines in your glass:
Anne Morey, who now runs Domaine Pierre Morey alongside her father Pierre and her son Jean-Victor. Three generations making some of Meursault's most elegant wines. The Meursaults and Pommard Grands Epenots are her daily work.
Sofia Thanisch, the fourth woman to manage Weingut Wwe. Dr. H. Thanisch on the Mosel, an estate whose very name ("Wwe." means "widow") honours Katharina Thanisch, who took over the estate in 1895 after her husband's death. With daughters Juliane and Christina, the 12th generation looks assured. The Berncasteler Doctor Rieslings are among Germany's finest.
Nadine Gublin, winemaker at Domaine Labruyère in Moulin-à-Vent. One of Beaujolais's most historic estates. Her hand is in every bottle of Champ de Cour, Le Carquelin, and Coeur de Terroirs that reaches your table.
And Lisha Nelson, one of South Africa's brightest rising star winemakers, whose scientific background and fierce passion drive the wines at Nelson Estate in Paarl.
The best way to celebrate International Women's Day as a wine lover isn't to buy a bottle with a pink label and call it solidarity. It's to drink something genuinely excellent, learn the name of the person who made it, understand why their work matters, and this is the important part, keep buying their wine for the other 364 days of the year.
Anne-Claude Leflaive didn't convert Domaine Leflaive to biodynamics so we could celebrate her one Saturday in March. She did it because she believed the soil was alive and deserved to be treated that way. Giulia Negri didn't plant Pinot Noir on a Barolo ridge to be interesting at dinner parties. She did it because she thought the terroir demanded it. Agnès Paquet doesn't farm 13 hectares by hand because it's trendy. She does it because she refuses to compromise.
These women didn't make great wine for women. They made great wine. Full stop.
Now pour yourself a glass.
We have named a lot of wines in this piece, from Leflaive Puligny to Giulia Negri's Barolos, from Agnès Paquet's Aligoté to Anne Morey's Meursaults, Sofia Thanisch's Rieslings, Nadine Gublin's Moulin-à-Vent, and Lisha Nelson's South African reds. If you could only pick one bottle from this article to open on March 8th, which would it be?
We'd love to know. Drop us a note at owcsg@corneyandbarrow.com.
All wines are available now at owcsg.com. Complimentary delivery with a minimum purchase of $350.
📧 owcsg@corneyandbarrow.com | 📞 +65 6221 8530
Cris Lu is Senior Account Manager, Private Clients at Corney & Barrow Singapore. For personalised recommendations or to discuss any wines mentioned in this article, reach her at cris.lu@corneyandbarrow.com.