Last night, my wife was reading an article in a recent issue of WS (Aug. 31, 2009 issue). The article gave some results of a recent “wine buying/consumption habits” survey that WS ran on its website a couple months ago. Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents were male. What you might find surprising (or not) is the incredible disparity between the representation of the sexes in this survey: male: 87%, female: 13%. This led my wife to ask me, “Why is it that most wine conniessieurs are men?” I thought about it for a moment, and then some more … finally, I realized I couldn’t come up with an answer.
The few wine forums I frequent are, without a doubt, male-heavy … as are most Offlines I attend, but I can think of some explanations for those phenomena. Nonetheless, I still couldn’t figure out why men are, generally speaking, more into fine wine than women. Anyone?
We just like to talk about it more. How many Shoe and Dress Forums do you see men participating in? (Jorge excluded.) Women have a better sense of smell than men, and if wanted to could put us to task with wine if they spoke up more about it. I think they just like to drink it and think WE men are girly talking about it so much.
Man “Wow, this wine is reminiscent of early Daodism, assertive yet not aggresive, strapping yet not abrasive…like a young school girl skipping across wet pavement…”
Not to sound like Larry Summers, but men are way more more hobby-oriented and nerdy about collecting than women. If you look at any collectible industry–baseball cards, music posters, art, cars, boats, etc. (basically anything but antiques, and maybe even there)–you’ll find more men than women (and as you get into the more obsessive ranks, men start to outnumber women exponentially). My wife loves wine, visiting wine regions, exploring producers, etc., but she has no desire or time to ever participate in a discussion board for anything, read magazines, record tasting notes, etc. Her interest stops at the drinking and traveling part–she leaves the researching and purchasing up to me. Think of all the dumb and expensive hobbies guys have compared to ones that women have.
I think the bias stems from what was traditionally a male oriented bastion…ordering wine at a restaurant.
I am the main wine purchaser in our house and I also buy the food.
I think the old school way is very slowly turning. We had almost 50% women at a few wine dinners.
Both of you guys are spot on. My wife’s nose and palate put me to shame, but she doesn’t give a shit for the most part. If it’s good it’s good, just drink it and stop overthinking the damn thing.
Same thing goes fro traveling and going to wineries. She loves it. She finds it fun and interesting but forget about ever participating in something like this.
Women have been the majority of buyers and drinkers for a long time. But I was just reading a new study that says the Millennial generation is the first to have more male wine drinkers than female - in addition to being the largest generation (in total size) of wine drinkers yet. I should be interesting if that shifts the overall M/F percentage of buyers once the entire Millennial generation is old enough to drink.
I agree with Eric, Ryan, Suzanne, and a good bunch of you. There’s much room for speculation regarding this subject. I remember a GM taking me through the wine portion of their store and how he mentioned how their Wine Department was grouped by varietal (as opposed to country or region), since the majority of their clientèle were women and when they chose wines it was to match with food. Interesting.
On a different note, I’d like to see some statistics regarding growth of women entering the wine industry. If you look at the roster for the Court of Master Sommeliers- for the US, men outnumber women 7:1. I speculate as the wine industry becomes more of an accepted career path, more women will enter the field. Makes sense anyway. This past April, I recall seeing an even number of men and women in my CSW class.
males are hunter/gatherers. it’s in our DNA. it’s that simple. you’ll find a million exceptions to the rule of course, etc., but this is inherently male behavior. there are plenty of aspects and influences along the way that perpetuated and allowed this trait to flourish but those don’t explain the behavior, they just facilitate it. the internet is just another tool in this regard.
getting geeky about wine – cataloging, organizing, comparing, arguing – are all just extensions of the base behavior. from an evolutionary standpoint, females aren’t hard wired to need to have this behavior. again, tons of exceptions, but the rule holds firm.
I think that’s right. I’ve encountered a number of excellent young female Sommeliers recently, most notably at Mugaritz in Spain. I think that we’re vastly more likely to see women become a larger part of the sommelier/winemaker ranks than we are to see them infiltrate heavily the bulletin-board reading, cellartracking-note-posting, internet arguing, trophy-bottle-chasing, vertical amassing crowd. Winemakers and sommeliers are like high-end farmers and chefs–plenty of women. Hardcore collectors veer more towards geekiness.
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