Women and Wine: A Collectible for the Fair Sex?

In a recent Zoom conversation, Queena Wong, a wine collector and founder of Curious Wines, pointed out how collecting wine differs from other collecting areas. Wine is consumable. Therefore, not only can the buyer take pleasure in purchasing and admiring the bottle, but they can also enjoy drinking it. An added advantage is that since it is consumable, taxes do not have to be paid on any gain should it be sold.

Queena says, however, that these multiple perks are currently being captured primarily by men. She describes gender decisions toward wine purchases in a similar way in which most households make financial decisions. Women often buy wine at the grocery store. Men often purchase high-end wine at independent stores.

Of course, these tendencies are a throwback to earlier times when women were relegated to the household and childcare. Nevertheless, the habits sometimes persist. Queena Wong wants to see a rebalance of the gender disparity for wine purchases and its appreciation. She feels there is a largely untapped market of women who could be interested in drinking excellent quality wine if their palates were developed. To that end, Queena has gone beyond collecting wine. She formed Curious Wines, a group to interest women in it.

Some Startling Facts

In a recent Gallup Poll of U.S. drinkers, alcoholic beverages preferred by subgroups were determined. Fifteen percent of the men favored wine compared to 49% of the women among beer, wine, and hard liquor choices. This statistic means that more than three times the women surveyed selected wine compared to men.

In California, female CEOs ran only 13% of the state’s wineries, with an annual production of over 10,000 cases. Unbelievably, there were no women executives at wineries producing between 100,000 to 500,000 cases every year. At the 500,000 to million cases annually, 25% of CEOs were women.

So, though three times women compared to men preferred wine, only one in four CEOs at California wineries are women. It is likely this is representative of the rest of the country.

Additionally, women collectors of wine are few and far between. According to a quote in Decanter (2008) by Tom Hudson at Farr Vintners, “When it comes to private wine collectors, well over 90% of our customers are male.”

Psychology and Its Relationship to Wine

What does this mean in terms of psychology? Well, it almost certainly has something to do with the development of wine as it relates to evolution. Early on, wine was a farming pursuit. Today, it continues to be agricultural but at an entirely different level. Sophisticated and automated machinery is involved, at least for larger wineries. This means women are more suited to wine production now than earlier because less physical labor is required, and a more cerebral approach fits the bill. So, in the future, there may well be more women CEOs of vineyards. Though the proportion may not meet the 49% level like women wine drinkers, the two figures, that of women CEOs and women who imbibe wine, will come closer. This might mean that women may like the wine produced better and, as a result, drink even more of it!

One interesting fact regarding women and wine is that the fairer sex of reproductive age is five times more sensitive to a variety of odors. This may be due to female reproductive behavior such as pair bonding, for example, the ability to form a close relationship between mother and child. Whatever the reason, it suggests that women may appreciate the aroma of wine better than age-matched males. This could contribute to Queena Wong’s mission to open a wider world to female wine drinkers, one they never before imagined could be possible.