Vinissima is a network of women that was founded 30 years ago in Baden to give female winemakers an opportunity to exchange ideas. In the meantime, there are more than 600 members in Germany who are active in various sectors of the wine industry. What they all have in common is the desire for professional exchange, further education and the opportunity to support and motivate each other. www.vinissima-ev.de.
We usually meet once a year in person for a networking weekend, but this year, of course, that fell through.
And so it became an online networking weekend.
I never thought something like this could be fun!
After an introductory motivational coaching "Seize the opportunity" by Manuela Groebe, there was a very interesting impulse lecture by Dominique Döttling with the title "The future is female - really? Here our thought patterns were turned upside down and the female as well as male view of things and language use were illuminated. The topic is so interesting that it could have been made into a one-day seminar.
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fischer then introduced us to the topic of cuvée using wine samples that we had previously been delivered to us at home: "The cuvée is more than the sum of its components - opportunities and examples". For winemakers in Germany (and also in Alsace), the single-varietal wine is the standard. The grape variety that is on the label is also min. 85% of the content. So a little bit of cuvée is really allowed here. True cuvées, where several grape varieties are blended in different quantities, either before or after fermentation, are still relatively unknown in our country.
After the lunch break, the program continued with an economic lecture by Prof. Dr. Alexander Hennig on the time following Corona and the influences of the pandemic on our economy.
Prof. Dr. Simone Loose then dealt specifically with the wine industry in her presentation. She shed light on changing consumer behavior, sales channels and consumer trends.
At the end of the evening, Barbara Wanner motivated us in her presentation to professionalize ourselves. Her starting points were to analyze our own actions and strategies step by step and to focus on a goal. Very motivating and worth a whole day's seminar in itself.
Up to this point, we were only spectators. We could ask questions via chat, SMS or WhatsApp, but we never saw each other. Now we switched from YouTube to Zoom and had the opportunity to talk directly about the respective contributions.
By now it was 17:00 and we had already been at it since 09:00 in the morning. I would not have imagined such an entertaining day in front of the screen.
But as always - the best came at the end. From 18:00 we met again by means of Zoom for the networking evening. Chatting, laughing, dancing - there were "rooms" for all possibilities to meet. It was quite uncomplicated. Funny, too, were the room name themselves: Foyer, Chillout Lounge, Dance Room, Séparées or even Ladies' Room.
We laughed a lot and were able to end the day on a happy note.
It showed how much fun it can be to spend such a motivating and eventful day in a good network alongside many inspiring women.