South Australian wine company, Zontes Footstep, has come on board as one of the official Be MPowered gifting partners.

Anna Fisher, Director and General Manager of Zontes Footstep, has been with the company since 2003, and has been the majority shareholder since 2009. She calls herself the "Grape Counter" because she is a CPA and has a Masters of Business. Her business partner, Brad Rey, is the Chief Winemaker. 

Anna says she is always keen to support women's business programs because of her own experiences in business.

The wine industry is still largely male-dominated despite great strides made over the past decade.

To address this, Zontes Footstep has introduced a diversity hiring policy but still receives only 10 per cent of applications from women for Cellar Technician roles, come vintage time. 

She says it's an issue across the wine industry, and the wider agricultural industry, and it's something she would like to see change. 

During Anna's time in the Director and General Manager role, the company has started exporting 50 per cent of its wine to 16 overseas markets, including Canada and China.

Anna says that 10,000 glasses of Zontes wine are drunk around the world every day.

Things that set their wines apart are that they don't list the vintage on the front of the label. This is because they have decided to focus on consistency and quality, rather than the variability that different vintages present. If it's a lousy vintage, they simply don't use that fruit.

They also steer clear of promoting grape varietals and instead give their wines playful names like "Shades of Gris", "Lake Doctor", "Baron Von Nemesis" and "Hills Are Alive". They have three highlighted tasting descriptions on the labels using words like "Pink Lady Apples", 'Honeydew Melon' and "Almond and Vanilla" to keep things simple for their customers.

Zontes Footstep is providing gift hampers to Be MPowered speakers, judges and VIPs that include a bottle of Shiraz and a selection of locally made Adelaide goodies.

For more information about Zontes Footstep, click here.