Is it True that Women prefer Red wines ?
Women and wine, the importance of women in the wine market is growing. Their knowledge of wine and their determination on the wine choice have to be well considered and studied starting from the study of a label up to price.
Lo staff al femminile delle Fattorie di Donatella Cinelli Colombini
We are very interested in any news articles about the subject of ‘Women and Wine’ We are the first Italian wineries which are run solely by women, (Casato Prime Donne and Fattoria del Colle), and because of this we always keep an eye open for articles on the subjec of women and wine, so we were very interested and surprised by the findings of a recent study by Vinexpo (a wine fair which opened in France on 18th June).
A sample of 10,000 women from France, England, Germany, the United States, Japan were intereviewed and the report states that the fair sex in these countries prefers to drink red wine.
Although the source of this authoritative news article is reputable we are still a little doubtful of the results. The Experts from Vinexpo state that 51% of the female consumers interviewed preferred red wines with the percentage growing even higher above the age of 40. In reality all other sources seem to indicate that female wine consumption has shifted in the market towards the whites and rosés. The rosés wines have always struggled to assert themseves within the wine market and we are keeping its current growth under a watchful eye. In Britain, half of women compared to 36% of men appreciate and enjoy rosé wine and current French research also indicates the dizzying growth of rosé (it has grown in popularity by 160 % over the two years in France).
Apart from the question of wine preference, the importance of women in the wine market is now an indisputable fact, as is the fact that their actual numbers are growing. Two years ago a survey in Japan was conducted to see whether wine was considered a drink for men or for women, the answer was interestingly that it was a drink for women.
The Wine Multi-nationals are already packaging and designing their labels for wine destined for the GDO using colorful graphics and attractive logos in order to hit the strongest market segment which is currently women. Even the marketing literature which is destined for the decision makers in a skirt, has been adapted to include information linking the importance and enjoyment of serving complementary beverages to various foods and which types of wine glasses to serve it in.
There were even more surprises to be found in the Vinexpo article: more than half the women interviewed believed that they understood and had as good a knowledge of wine as men. Gone are the days when women said to men ‘You choose the wine’. A sommelier should be careful nowadays about always turning to the male diners as if it was a matter of course that they will choose the wine for the meal, at last sex equality has arrived at the wine list selection.
The last curious fact to be found in the French study on women’s interest in wine, was concerning the primary reason for the choice of the wine. The survey indicates that the reason for the selection of a particular wine changes according to the nationality of the individual: the French who were interviewed put a lot of importance in the area of the origin of the wine, the vine itself was the most important factor in the choice in the U.S., while for the English, the most important element affecting the choice was the price.