Linda King – Winemaker

Sally Gupton Photography

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When Linda got started in the winemaking business over 30 years ago, she had never tasting the nectar she sought to make. The self-taught winemaker at RagApple Lassie Vineyards broke into the business when there were few female winemakers. “It’s an interesting business because even when I was the only one, it didn’t make any difference. I was never treated any differently [because I was a woman],” she says. Today, women are still a minority in the industry, but Linda is working to kick that statistic. She was the first woman to ever win an award in an American Wine Society amateur competition. She was written up in the Wall Street Journal for a wine she produced for a vineyard in Ohio. But one of her biggest accomplishments has been becoming an internationally certified wine judge. “There are still not many females judging,” she says. “Of 75, maybe ten will be women.” Read her whole story at ladyofthegrape.com.