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Inspiring Women Magazine May 2023

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Revisiting 2017...<br />

Bella Paola Guerrero De Cohen<br />

Liz introduces us to her <strong>Inspiring</strong><br />

Woman of 2017, wine maker<br />

Bella Paola Guerrero de Cohen,<br />

AWC Finland.<br />

"W<br />

hen we first started<br />

<strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> in 2016 we<br />

had no idea if anyone would<br />

be willing to share their<br />

inspiring stories with us. The first nine profilees<br />

therefore have a special place in my heart.<br />

They were willing to trust us, even though we<br />

were completely untested, to tell their story.<br />

Paola’s story is one that I really remember. Here<br />

was the story of a woman who had been sent<br />

away from home in Ecuador (language and<br />

culture number one) by her parents to study<br />

in the USA (language and culture number two).<br />

While there, she met the love of her life, David,<br />

and subsequently moved with him to Finland<br />

(language and culture number three). The<br />

courage and strength to make all those moves<br />

is impressive to me, especially since, even with<br />

my limited knowledge, I know they are<br />

culturally and linguistically rather different!<br />

Then while she was living in Finland, as well as<br />

caring for her young family, she decided to start<br />

a winemaking business, Ainoa Winery; she had<br />

previously made wine as a hobby while in the<br />

US. Wine is not something many of us would<br />

associate with Finland and indeed Paola found<br />

it would be a challenge to grow grapes there<br />

so had to learn about how to make it from<br />

berries instead.<br />

Paola Guerrero de Cohen<br />

After many ups and downs, the business she<br />

and her husband have today is thriving and<br />

their wine has won more than 50 international<br />

medals. In 2017 Ainoa’s 2015 wine Vaapukka<br />

was placed on the list of the best produced<br />

wines in the world by Œnologues<br />

de France and the wines have<br />

been on the best produced<br />

wines list every year since." Paola tending<br />

to her fruit.<br />

8 INSPIRING WOMEN INSPIRING WOMEN 9

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