Meet Isabelle Simi: America's First Female Winemaker
This profile was in the April 12, 2023 issue of Merobebe.
Today, we’re talking about a legend in the wine industry: Isabelle Simi (pronounced like “see me”). She was the first woman winemaker in the United States, running Sonoma’s Simi Winery through a huge earthquake and Prohibition.
Her story begins when her father, Giuseppe Simi, and his brother Pietro immigrated to San Francisco from Montepulciano, Italy in the 1840s hoping to find gold. When that didn’t work out, they began growing produce until they eventually pivoted to making wine (which is basically gold), starting off in Alexander Valley before relocating to Healdsburg in Sonoma County.
By the time Isabelle was 18, the brothers were becoming one of the largest independent winegrowers in the state and she was crowned Queen of the 1904 Healdsburg Flower Festival. Sadly, her father and uncle died of the Spanish flu within weeks of each other that same year and Isabelle had to take over management of the winery at a young age. This was a time when many women weren’t in business and were denied access to credit, but Isabelle didn’t let that stop her.
Isabelle moved onward with gusto and immediately began working on the expansion of the winery. She also had steel bars installed in the cellars to withstand earthquakes, an extremely smart decision which paid off a couple years later. When the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake sent shocks through Sonoma County, Simi Winery became one of the few buildings that didn’t sustain significant damage. Isabelle also worked quickly to stay ahead of competitors by traveling across the country to visit wine distributors at just age 22.
A picture of Isabelle Simi at Simi Winery's tasting room
Courtesy of Simi Winery
Then came Prohibition in 1920, a massive blow that resulted in many local wineries literally dumping their wines into local rivers and creeks (legend has it people in town showed up with buckets to scoop up the now slightly diluted wine). Instead of doing the same, Isabelle took advantage of a loophole that allowed for the production and sale of sacramental wine to churches. While she did have to sell some of the winery’s property, she managed to keep Simi operating through the Prohibition years by selling “medicinal” and “sacramental” wine to religious organizations around the country (that must have been some very good church wine…). When Prohibition was finally repealed in December of 1933, Simi was not only one of the few wineries that survived Prohibition, but had 500,000 gallons of wine ready to sell to a very thirsty public!
The next year, Isabelle took another radical step and decided to sell wine not only to wine distributors, but directly to customers. This prompted the opening of Simi’s first tasting room, created from a 25,000 gallon Champagne cask installed in front of the winery’s cellar. Just in case the wine itself wasn’t enough to draw people in, she also had a payphone (a novelty at the time) placed outside the tasting room. Customers came from far and wide to visit the tasting room, drinking wine that Isabelle sold to them while waiting to use the payphone. The ultimate customer service!
Even in the depths of the Great Depression, Isabelle stewarded Simi Winery towards success. Simi wines gained a national reputation, won gold medals at the California state fair in 1941, and became the house wine at the famous Hotel del Monte resort in Monterey. When her husband passed away in 1954, she continued to run retail sales out of the tasting room with their daughter, Vivien, where she wore aprons covered with political buttons and utilized an innovative and sophisticated security system: a pet turkey that was extremely protective of the cash register and only let Isabelle open it.
Shortly after Vivien’s death in 1970, Isabelle retired at the age of 84 and sold the winery to a local grape grower who was a former oil executive. However, she continued to work in the tasting room, wearing her “Love wine not war” apron while regaleing guests with stories of how red wine flowed through the rivers and streets of Healdsburg during Prohibition.
First American female winemaker Isabelle Simi outside of Simi Winery's tasting room. Courtesy of Simi Winery
(Side note: Mary Ann Graf, the first woman to graduate with a degree in viticulture and enology from UC Davis, joined Simi Winery as their winemaker in 1973).
While Isabelle finally passed away in 1981 at the age of 95, the winery continues to live on today as one of the oldest continuously operating wineries in California. In addition, Simi is still run by female winemakers and even did a collaboration with Reese’s Book Club, founded by Reese Witherspoon to celebrate women’s stories, in 2021.
Fun fact: While she ran the winery, Isabelle planted a rose bush for every sitting president except for one. Out of spite, Isabelle refused to plant one for Prohibition-era President Herbert Hoover. Apparently, he heard about the garden and, not wanting to be left out, personally sent a rose bush to Isabelle to be planted. Of course, Isabelle sent it right back. I think the lesson here is that flowers don’t fix everything and also – don’t mess with our money!