Anne Ebenreiter Hubatch (BA Geology and Environmental Studies ‘99) is frequently asked what it is like to be a female winemaker in a field that tends to be dominated by men. In the United States, only about 18 percent of winemakers are women.
In response, the founder and owner of Portland, Oregon’s Helioterra Wines, the winery she founded in 2009, chuckles and shares an anecdote from an event she recently attended, a four-course “dueling winemaker” meal that pitted her against a male winemaker she had mentored a decade ago. The two were canvassing the room, talking to guests tableside.
“One of the gentlemen at a table commented, ‘You don't look like a winemaker to me,’” says Hubatch. “And I asked, ‘Okay, what do you think a winemaker is supposed to look like?’ I think he expected me to look like my friend, a man, who was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and looked like Jesus.”
Hubatch has been making wine long enough — more than 20 years now, fourteen with her own company — to remain undeterred by thoughtless comments like these.
“At this point, I’ve become less apologetic about who I am, what I do and how I do it,” she says. “I know that I'm good at what I’m doing. I know who I am. I do not need to be an overt feminist to be a leader and entrepreneur/business owner.”
Hubatch studied geology and environmental studies as an undergraduate at UW and first moved to Portland to pursue work in the environmental nonprofit space. She knew she needed a graduate degree to forge a career in geology, but graduate school was not in her plans yet.
“Instead, I found myself in the Willamette Valley, one of the most up-and-coming wine regions in the world,” she recalls.
To make additional cash and meet new people, she took a weekend job in a wine tasting room — an experience that spurred her to sign up for a winemaking curriculum at a local community college. When fundraising for her nonprofit job became challenging in the wake of 9/11, she jumped into the wine business with both feet, taking a job with an established local winery.
And landed squarely at the bottom.
“I was the cellar grunt and had my humility handed to me that first harvest,” Hubatch recalls. “I mean, it’s hard work. Winemaking is physically challenging work. I think this is the leading reason you don't see more women in the cellar. Many people say that winemakers are limited to what they can do by their bodies, not necessarily their passions.”
Wine-sippers are typically unaware of how physically taxing winemaking can be, moving heavy wine barrels which weigh one hundred pounds when empty, six hundred pounds when full. (Becoming an expert forklift driver, as Hubatch has, becomes key.) And managing the punchdown, where Hubatch must stand over a fermenting vat of wine and push the grapes back down with a massive plunger to keep the wine mixture balanced.
Between managing grape harvesting and fermentation, Hubatch typically works 10 to 18-hour days during the harvest season. And that just covers the winemaking side. She also manages marketing, sales, bookkeeping and events for Helioterra.
Hubatch has worked her way up the grape-laden ladder, from cellar assistant to winemaker. In the middle of the 2009 recession and pregnant with her second child, Hubatch took the leap, taking half the equity out of her home mortgage to buy grapes and barrels and rent a little corner of space in a friend’s urban winery.
“I took a shot on myself,” Hubatch says.
Portland and the Willamette Valley are pinot noir country — they are on the same geographic parallel as Burgundy, France — and that’s where Hubatch began her craft. But she has also explored the other seventy grape varieties that grow there. She makes twenty types of wine, marketed under two brands: Helioterra, which includes artisan handcrafted wines like pinot noir and pinot blanc, and Whoa Nelly! — a brand Hubatch describes as Helioterra’s “tomboy little sister,” a more approachable and fun value-oriented brand.
Hubatch’s personal favorite is her concrete fermented Melon de Bourgogne, a crisp and vibrant white that she ages in a concrete egg tank.
“It’s awesome with oysters and seafood, and it’s a unique wine,” Hubatch says. “I'm very, very proud of that one.”
The name Helioterra nods to her Wisconsin geology background and her chosen home of Oregon. The name is inspired by Oregon's state gemstone, the heliolite, more commonly referred to as the sunstone, and the “terra” part refers to the earth in which the grapes grow. The logo she chose is an ammonite fossil, another nod towards Madison geology.
Hubatch loves being able to bring the geology expertise she acquired in Madison to bear on her winemaking. She has learned about the Mediterranean and volcanic soils in Oregon that give the grapes she grows their distinctive flavor profiles, knowledge she often shares with her customers and guests.
Hubatch prides herself on supporting other women in the industry and a commitment to sustainability. She also maintains close ties to UW. During the pandemic, Hubatch hosted a Zoom tasting with Badger alumni in Oregon. One of Hubatch’s UW friends took smart advantage, asking the group which wine went best with bratwurst. (Hubatch’s answer? Shiraz.)
As she looks to the future, Hubatch is aware her role is likely to shift. She broke a finger and fractured her ribs while moving heavy equipment earlier this year, a sharp reminder that nobody can meet the steep demands of the gig forever. She is currently weighing long-term options.
But for now, she is enjoying all she has accomplished.
“I feel like UW–Madison and geology gave me a great start towards this,” says Hubatch. “A lot of people don't quite end up in the profession that their degree was in, but the rocks, soils and growing are an important piece for me.”
