The wine world, tied as it is to cultural and historical traditions (or boat anchors, depending on your point of view), unsurprisingly lags behind much of the world in many areas. The one I spend most of the time talking about is technology, but the area that does not get talked about enough is equality.

Roughly 62% of the graduates of the prestigious UC Davis Viticulture and Enology program are women. Yet the percentage of California wineries who employ a female winemaker hovers at around 10%.

This is awful and needs to be fixed. There are talented women to be celebrated. There must be progress. And we should drink well while doing it.

Which is why you should consider attending this year’s incarnation of WINeFare, a celebration of women and natural wine put on by a long-standing member of the San Francisco wine scene, Pamela Busch. Pamela was one of the partners in Hayes and Vine, one of San Francisco’s earliest wine bars (before they were a thing) and has been evangelizing good wine forever.

In recent years, she’s focused more squarely on natural and sustainable wines and those who make them, and has been a strong voice for women’s equality in the world of wine. That has led her, among other things, to create WINeFare, an annual tasting of natural wines made by women, poured by women, and celebrated by women.

The tasting will be held at The Women’s Building in the Mission District and will feature more than 22 different producers. This year’s theme is “Drinking Clearly: an exploration in transparency, labor, process, and people behind wine.”

WINeFare: Women in Natural Wine Tasting
Saturday, March 7th
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
The Women’s Building
3543 18th St. (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco, CA 94110

$50 gets you into the tasting with discounts for those in the trade and for students. Get your tickets in advance. 16th Street BART station is a short walk away from the venue, so you don’t have to drink and drive. Parking is a nightmare in that section of the Mission anyhow.