After graduating cum laude with a degree in Enology in 1981, Susana Balbo became the first female winemaker in Argentina’s history, and her first vintage of high-quality Torrontés made it clear that Argentina had a white wine to call its own. In addition to working as an international consultant, Balbo has played an outsized role in driving her country’s wine industry forward, having been elected president of Wines of Argentina not once but three times. It was during this time that Argentinian wine exports made history, growing in double digits and gaining recognition on the world’s wine map. In this role, she became an influential leader in this new wine-producing Argentina after decades of a wine market reliant on only domestic consumption.

Today, Susana Balbo is the owner and chief winemaker of Susana Balbo Wines in Mendoza. Moreover, she is a National Congresswoman and in 2017 was elected by the President of Argentina to be part of the W20. With a 30-year career in the wine industry, Susana Balbo is certainly the most well-known female Argentinian winemaker, within the country and abroad. In 2012 she was the only Argentinian named among the ‘50 Most Powerful Women in the Wine World’ by the British magazine Drinks Business. In 2015, she was awarded ‘Woman of the Year 2015’ by Drinks Business Magazine.