Pioneering Argentina-based winemaker Susana Balbo is the recipient of the prestigious Decanter Hall of Fame award for 2024, joining a roll-call of great names who have made outstanding contributions to the wine world.
Balbo has been instrumental in enhancing Argentina’s international reputation for top quality wines, and is known as the ‘Queen of Torrontés’ for her work with this grape variety.
Presiding over her eponymous Susana Balbo Wines today, she was the first female winemaker in South America.
‘Susana Balbo didn’t just break the glass ceiling for women in South America, she completely shattered it, becoming a role model for generations to follow,’ writes Amanda Barnes in a special feature in Decanter magazine’s October 2024 issue.
‘And regardless of her gender, she has masterfully achieved exceptional milestones – facing often unfathomable challenges along the way.’
Balbo had initially intended to study nuclear physics, but circumstances led her to winemaking and she finished top of the class, writes Barnes, who is author of the South America Wine Guide.
After beating 88 male applicants to secure a first job, at Michel Torino, Balbo moved to the remote mountain village of Cafayate and revolutionised the wines – personally transporting materials across the treacherous Andean pass when lorry drivers refused.
‘She was always challenging herself to move forward, and continues to drive forward today,’ said Mariano di Paolo, who worked with Balbo at Bodegas Esmeralda (now Catena Zapata) in the early 1990s.
‘It is only when you are challenged in life that you can realise certain talents,’ Balbo told Barnes in an interview. ‘I believe things happen for a reason.’
While Balbo contributed greatly to premium white wines in Argentina, she is a big fan of reds and named Cabernet Sauvignon her favourite grape variety to work with – even above Malbec.
Alongside winemaking, she has been president and vice-president of trade body Wines of Argentina. She also served as a Congresswoman for Mendoza, and was chair of W20 (Women20) for the G20 summit in 2018.
Part of Balbo’s work is now to ensure that the family business can be handed over to her children, Ana and José, and the wider team, in order to continue to thrive.
‘I feel very privileged to have grown up being taught by her that there are no limits to what you can do,’ said Ana, who manages tourism at the group’s winery, three restaurants and luxury hotel.
‘But she also taught us to focus on others – if the community doesn’t grow around the winery, there is no point to it.’
Read Amanda Barnes’ full article on Hall of Fame 2024 award winner Susana Balbo
Pascaline Lepeltier: Decanter Rising Star 2024
Pascaline Lepeltier and Nathan Kendall, with whom she produces wine under the chëpìka label. Photo credit: Christina Rasmussen.
Decanter has also announced that this year’s Rising Star award goes to Pascaline Lepeltier, the talented sommelier and author working to improve wine’s environmental and social impact.
Lepeltier is the fourth recipient of the Rising Star award, which was created to recognise up-and-coming wine world talent.
She is already one of the world’s top sommeliers and has recently authored her first solo book, Mille Vignes, as Christina Rasmussen reports in a special feature article in Decanter magazine’s October 2024 issue.
The English translation, One Thousand Vines, is due to be released in the UK in October (£45, Mitchell Beazley).
Decanter contributing editor Andrew Jefford said: ‘Mille Vignes is a wonderful compendium of knowledge – not only about wine but around wine, presented with encyclopaedic intent and academic refinement: she’s chased up every reference, every thread.
‘Pascaline has given us the breadth of her own remarkable knowledge, in a spirit of generosity very typical of her. I find it a hugely enjoyable, exciting and original book on wine – a real achievement from an outstanding member of the global wine community.’
Lepeltier studied philosophy at Nantes University in France, but subsequently developed a fascination with wine after meeting Patrick Rigourd, the head wine merchant at Des Halles et des Gourmets, in Angers.
This led to a second Master’s degree, in hospitality management, and a sommelier diploma, alongside an internship at chef Jacques Thorel’s L’Auberge Bretonne.
‘Growing up, I didn’t go to restaurants with my parents; I discovered the world of gastronomy during my internship,’ Lepeltier told Rasmussen in Decanter magazine.
‘I became fascinated by taste and the power of the palate, and really saw it as an anthropological study.’
Vineyard work with winemakers Mark Angeli, of Ferme de la Sansonnière, and Nicolas Joly helped to ignite Lepeltier’s passion for organics and biodynamics.
Lepeltier devised one of the world’s most celebrated wine lists after becoming beverage director for Rouge Tomate in New York in 2009, writes Rasmussen.
She also went on to create the chëpìka label with winemaker Nathan Kendall, sourced from New York state’s historical hybrid varieties Delaware, Catawba and Concord.
Lepeltier was named Best Sommelier of France in 2018 and plans to compete in the International Sommelier Association’s (ASI) Best Sommelier of Europe, Africa & Middle East in November 2024, having come fourth in the ‘World’ contest last year.