‘Gustav Got the Winery and Sophie Got the Soup Tureen’: The Contribution of Women to The Barossa Valley Wine Industry, 1836–2003

Abstract

This paper explores the participation of women in grape growing and wine making in the Barossa Valley, and their contribution to the establishment of the wine industry in this important centre of wine production in South Australia. It also addresses the social and cultural factors that have influenced women’s work in the wine industry, such as the ideology underpinning the allocation of male and female work spaces. Most wine writers have consistently ignored the significant part that women have taken in the South Australian wine industry. An examination of primary sources provides evidence of the long and continued participation of women in wine making. Interviews with women who currently work in vineyards and wineries complete the picture of their involvement in the wine industry, revealing the long and unacknowledged history of women in the wine industry of the Barossa Valley.