On the California wine scene, winemakers get the glory. Their name is often on the bottle. They preside over winemaker dinners. They give visitors tours of their wineries. And most are men.

The state’s wine trade is more diverse than that, of course, including in the Sacramento region.

In addition to making wine, people in the trade grow grapes that yield the wine, they research better ways to grow grapes and make wine, they teach wine appreciation, they oversee tasting rooms, and they sell it, their venues ranging from restaurants to wine shops.

And many of them are women, often behind the scene. Who are they? How did they get into wine? And what insights have they gleaned to enlighten wine consumers, whether seasoned or novice? I talked to eight of them in the Sacramento area to find out.

Tracey Berkner (Photo courtesy of Tracey Berkner)

Tracey Berkner, owner, the restaurant Taste, the hotel Rest, Plymouth, Amador County

Tracey Berkner and her husband Mark constitute the First Couple of the culinary arts in Amador County. It has been that way since 1997, when they bought the St. George Hotel in Volcano and quickly made it over into a dining destination, despite its remoteness and isolation. They did the same with the Volcano Union Pub + Inn, which they sold this spring, and continue to do with the restaurant Taste and the hotel Rest in Plymouth, gateway to Amador County’s Shenandoah Valley.

Tracey’s restaurant responsibilities include overseeing Taste’s acclaimed wine list and orchestrating wine-and-food dinners, experience that reinforces her lesson plans as an adjunct professor in culinary arts at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton. There, she teaches courses on restaurant operations, hospitality careers and beverage management.

What do you most want your students to take away from your instruction of wine?

I want them to have a basic understanding of what goes into wine. I want them to know that wine opens a whole world for them, that there are career paths they can pursue. In Stockton we have an extremely diverse student population. Many have never seen wine in a bottle before, not at home or along an aisle they would go down in a grocery store. They see vineyards in the Central Valley, they understand that that’s where grapes are grown, but they don’t understand what is done with them. When I ask them if they eat in restaurants with a wine list, not a single hand will go up. I want them to be curious when they do walk down that aisle in the grocery store with wines. I want them to look at the bottles and practice reading labels.

At Taste, do diners listen to you when you provide suggestions for a wine or have they learned all they need to know from Instagram, Twitter and Tik-Tok?

There are people who know what they want and who will have it regardless of what they are eating. In recommending wine, I try to select smaller producers who might not be as well known. That way, I can introduce a varietal they might not otherwise try and also a producer they might not know.

How do you handle this situation: A diner is on a budget but reluctant to say that in front of his or her guests when handed the wine list. Can you sense that, and if so, how do you respond?

A great wine list doesn’t have to be expensive. Often, quality is perceived as the label and the region the wine comes from, but that isn’t always the case. I train our service staff to give diners choices. They are to talk about wine a little bit and give diners options within different price ranges, then let diners decide the price range.

What makes for a good server?

A good server is someone who has a desire to always be learning, and thus is knowledgeable about what they are selling. That knowledge is confidence. A guest is more likely to follow suggestions of a server who is confident. Other attributes include being committed to customer satisfaction over a gratuity, being a team player, having great communication skills, be good at problem solving, having physical endurance, having the ability to smile under pressure, and having really good shoes.

To find where my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California” can be found, please visit my website SignatureWines.us.