Idealog sits down with Pip Clarke, the award-winning Head Winemaker from Mount Michael Wines, to talk about what it is like being one of the few females in her role and what goes in the daily life of someone creating a delicacy.

What is Mount Michael Wines and how does it differ from the rest of the wine industry?

We are different because of our people. We are a small, tight-knit team, and each person brings their own individuality and spark to the business. Each of us gets involved in multiple areas of the business, from vineyard to sales and events, so we have a unique perspective and understanding of the business as a whole.  Additionally, we are lucky to be sourcing fruit from multiple sub-regions across Central Otago. Having access to fruit from more than one location is great for me as a winemaker, as it allows us to blend and create delicious sub-regional blends and produce single vineyard wines showing their unique sub-regional characteristics.

What does your day-to-day look like as Head Winemaker at Mount Michael Wines?

Each winemaking year has a broad structure, so it depends a lot on the time of the year. Vintage, when grapes are being harvested and made into wine, is one of the busiest times, and in Central Otago generally runs from March to late April. You check vineyards, make picking decisions, taste ferments, make decisions on how to manage them, and put wine in a barrel. Once vintage is over, it’s often time to start looking at preparing The Mountaineer aromatic whites for bottling while also keeping an eye on the wines in barrel.

Winter is vineyard pruning, maintenance, planning, and wine events. There is also an enormous amount of compliance involved in wine production–sorry, people, it’s not all tasting wine and having fun!

Springtime is starting to think about blends for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and the later bottled Mount Michael aromatics. Spring is one of the best times when you can see how the wines have changed and evolved, and it’s great to get the team involved in the decision-making. Spring and summer are busy times in the vineyard as the vines grow and fruit develops. Then, it’s time to get everything put into the bottle so we can fill the winery with fruit again.

Read more: A Day in the Life: Nick Brown Co-founder of Cook & Nelson

What are the advantages but also the challenges you face being a woman in the winemaking industry and how do you overcome any challenges that come your way?

I feel I have always been very lucky in my winemaking career to have worked for and alongside other women. My long-term jobs have been in New Zealand and Australia; I worked for women winemakers in most of these. At a vintage job in France, I worked in the cellar with a team of women only, and despite the locals thinking it would be too physical for us, by the end of the vintage, we had proved them wrong. I love working in a team that includes women and men, as, like any job, it brings strength and diversity to the team.

Despite my positive experience, The NZ wine industry as a whole is still under-represented by women.  We are lucky to have our own Women in Wine group, and a 2022 gender pay gap study conducted by them found the 2021 split in the wine production and growing workforce was 67% men and 33% women. The average pay gap is 7.8% in favour of men, which beats the national average of 9.1%; however, the gap is much wider in some roles. For example, the gap in the Winemaker/Chief Winemaker role was 23% in 2021. While more women are coming into the industry, the change is slow, and the pay gap could be off-putting for women.

Where do you see Mount Michael Wines heading over the next few years as more and more technology comes into play and work hand in hand when it comes to winemaking?

I think technology will continue to help the wine industry in multiple areas, from things such as more detailed weather analysis, developing ways to manage vineyard pests and diseases in a more environmentally friendly way, monitoring the winemaking process and developing new and more sustainable packaging. At Mount Michael Wines, we are moving towards lighter-weight glass bottles where possible, and I would love to see this trend continue with exploration into alternative packaging. Another interesting avenue is the production of low and no-alcohol wine, in which tech has a huge impact. Watch this space.