Pioneer of wine, goodbye to Isabel Mijares
More than half a century ago Isabel Mijares (1942-2024) became the first woman oenologist in Spain. It was in 1970, after having obtained her doctorate in Chemistry in Madrid and in Oenology, specialising in Sensory Analysis, in Bordeaux. Her mentor and teacher, Émile Peynaoud, the father of modern oenology, highly recommended her to another pioneer, Daniel Buelta, who put her in charge of his Palacio de Arganza winery in El Bierzo.
The daughter of a Leonese and an Extremaduran, Isabel was the prototype of a free woman when the civil codes still set the age of majority for women at 25. She rode motorbikes, smoked cigars and drank wine, the latter in a style that very few men appreciated. In those early years of the second half of the 20th century, wine was consumed, and only a few knew how to taste it. Isabel has taught several generations that this product, so closely linked to the Judeo-Christian culture, is more than a drink, it is food, and that its correct treatment is a sign of identity of a region, of a country and, in short, of a multitude of men and women capable of sublimating all the knowledge, history and life that is enclosed in the wines.
Like all great figures aware of their destiny, Isabel Mijares has never stopped a single day of her life in teaching, showing, educating and training tens of thousands of people in the culture of wine. The management of wineries, the installation of new plants, the ageing of wines and, above all, sensory analysis, have been the main chapters of a multitude of courses, held both in her own laboratory in Madrid, and in numerous institutes, Spanish and foreign universities, as well as in circles and recreational institutions.
A world champion wine taster, at the beginning of her professional life in Spain she was forbidden to enter certain wineries "because they said that women made the wine cloudy on certain days...". Later, the doors were opened wide for her, to the point of being the first woman president of an appellation of origin, specifically Valdepeñas, from 1982 to 1987. Her prestige also led her to the position of Head of the United Nations Project for Advising Governments on Vitivinicultural Practices. From that position, she succeeded in rooting the peasantry in the territory through viticulture in countries such as Bolivia, Albania, Moldavia and Colombia. Her philosophy that without the land and the people who work it there is no product has also been instilled in lands such as Bierzo, Valdeorras, León and Valles de Benavente. She has also created the wine grown at the highest altitude in the world, at more than 3,300 metres, in Salta, on the Argentinean side of the Andes. Her "Puna", the word for altitude sickness, is considered to be one of the best Argentinean wines.
Before a heart attack took her from this world, Isabel Mijares had been in top form at the Casa de León in Madrid at the presentation of Antonio García Álvarez's book on the history of the Casa de León, where, tasting León wine in her usual unmistakable style, she spoke to us about her project for Equatorial Guinea and the establishment of those she has already set up in Latin America. It will be others who will take up his legacy and carry them out. Her refusal to reveal her favourites remains for posterity: "I choose wines to drink according to what and with whom, seeking balance with food and harmony with the human being". Spain's first female oenologist, whose contribution to wine culture has been enormous in terms of her sentimental, emotional and imaginative side, has gone.