WALLA WALLA, WA – Brook & Bull Cellars is committed to incentivizing more female representation at the upper tiers of the wine world. Moving forward, the winery will only submit wines for scoring to women wine critics, whose names are published with their scores.
Women purchase 59% of all wines bought in the United States1, meanwhile nearly all wines are scored by men. As a woman-owned and -operated winery, Brook & Bull Cellars looks forward to seeing an increased diversity of voices in wine. Of the $78.4 billion spent each year on wine in the United States, more than half of it is spent by women2. This trend has been increasing for years and is expected to continue to grow. Despite being an overwhelming majority of purchasers, women are:
- Only 14% of winemakers
- Only 15% of Master Sommeliers
- Only 6% of winery owners3.
“While women are the major force behind the financial success of the wine world, they are rarely represented at the top of that industry. We have customers, but aren’t being honest about who that customer is. That’s silly. The truth is, wine is a woman’s world and has been for a long time,” remarks Ashley Trout, owner and winemaker of Brook & Bull Cellars. “If women are the majority of the buyers, it would make sense that they comprise the majority of the wine critics, but that’s very far from our current reality.” The winery insists that the industry, from the leaders down, must be a better representation of the current market. This commitment to women-only wine scorers is one way they can contribute to that movement.
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About Brook & Bull Cellars: Founded in 2016, Brook & Bull focuses on producing fine varietals and untraditional blends with a low oak profile, purposely highlighting vintage variation and showing Washington State terroir.
About Ashley Trout: Ashley began her winemaking career at the age of 18, following her passions around the world in search of the best ways to combine a love of wine making with a goal for community betterment. She started her first winery, Flying Trout Wines, at age 24 and then went onto start Vital, a nonprofit winery whose mission is to improve equity in access to healthcare for vineyard workers and their families. Brook & Bull Cellars is Trout’s third winery.
1 2021 Wine Market Council Benchmark Segmentation Survey (59% are women)
2 Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, https://www.gfawine.com/
3 Lucia Albino Gilbert, UCSC, Dec 2022, https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/facts.php and Court of Master Sommeliers, https://www.mastersommeliers.org/masters/list
