Top 50 most powerful women in wine: 20 – 11

17th December, 2012 by Lucy Shaw

15. LISA PERROTI- BROWN MW

AGE: 45
Born in Maine, New England, Perrotti-Brown passed her MW in 2008. Based in Singapore, last week she was appointed editor-in-chief of bi-monthly publication The Wine Advocate, as founder Robert Parker announced he was to step down from the role after 34 years. Following the move, a new TWA office will be set up in Singapore for Perrotti-Brown MW to operate out of. In addition to her editor duties, she is the Asian wine correspondent for eRobertParker.com, and reviews Australian and New Zealand wines for The Wine Advocate, giving her considerable power over both consumer palates and the fate of Antipodean wine producers.

Passing her WSET diploma in London, she subsequently worked in various wine sales roles in the capital for 12 years before moving to Tokyo in 2002 to work as a buyer for one of Japan’s top fine wine importers. As one of the world’s leading experts on Asian wine markets, she frequently lectures on the subject at conferences around the world.

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One Response to “Top 50 most powerful women in wine: 20 – 11”

Lindsay Woodard says:

December 19, 2012 at 1:06 am

I highly recommend Nancy Ponzi who be a strong candidate for the Top 50. Nancy and her husband Dick, were one of the original pioneers in the Oregon Wine Industry. She has led the way for the Willamette Valley and developed the foundation for our region.

She co-founded The Consumers’ Food Council, which promotes environmental concerns of food and agriculture and the novel concepts of recycling, ingredient labeling and a legal definition of organic. This led to becoming a registered environmental lobbyist at the Oregon Legislature. Nancy also worked with the legislature to ensure Oregon’s label requirements are the strictest in the world – wineries must have 90% of the varietal on our labels.

She helped create the !Salud! Foundation which provides healthcare for local vineyard workers, the International Pinot Noir Celebration (noted as one of the finest wine events in the world), Oregon Pinot Camp and the list goes on… Nancy and her husband also raised two powerful young women, Luisa who now makes the wines, and Maria who handles the sales and marketing.

I was very fortunate to have a career with the Ponzi Family and learned so many valuable work ethics and tricks of the trade. These three women have been powerful not only in the Oregon wine community, but are recognized internationally for their achievements. They instilled the power in me that women in wine were as equal to the male dominated industry and gave me the confidence to achieve my dreams of owning 1) a brand development company for wineries, 2) starting my own winery, Retour as a single, young female and 3) my third business which focuses on the brokerage of rare and fines wines. I’ve been in the wine business since I was a sophomore in college. From the start, I have always been mentored and inspired by high achieving women in the industry. I never felt that women were anything but strong, powerful and inspirational leaders. I have enjoyed all of your selections so far, there are so many fabulous women in the wine community. Would love to see you consider Nancy Ponzi.

Thank you,

Lindsay Woodard
Proprietor
Retour Winery

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