Why A Wine Club Just for Women? Men!

Posted by Tom Wark on Oct 28, 2005

I’m not a woman. So maybe I’m not physically equipped to understand the significance of the "First web community for women who love wine, travel and the best of everything."

Nevertheless, I’m going to give it a shot.

Karen MacNeil, one of America’s most important wine authorities explains the new website, womenwine.com, this way:

"As they do with fashion, food and design, women
have a special sensibility when it comes to wine. Part of learning
about wine is experiencing it first hand and while there are lots of
ways to do that, Women & Wine(TM) combines the best components:
great wines with unforgettable experiences."

I guess what I’m looking for here, then, is an understanding of that "special sensibility". I worked with one woman winemaker/winery owner who was convince that women make better winemakers because they are emotionally better equipped to nurture. While that always sounded right to me in a metaphysical kind of way, I’ve always had that distinctively male quality that demands you "show me."

Of course now we are getting into that sometimes nasty area of stereotypes. As a marketer, that area can mean bread and butter. We don’t call them stereotypes, however, when we think about marketing wine to a particular demographic. We call it "tendencies".

Women clearly have tendencies when it comes to wine drinking and wine buying. One is that women tend to do most of the grocery store wine buying. They also tend to view wine more than men do as simply an alcoholic drink, rather than as men are more likely to see wine, as a symbol or self defining part of their accomplished life.

Of course, womenwine.com is a pure marketing exercise in the same way that Beringer’s new wine for women, "White Lie" has nothing else at its heart beyond a new revenue stream.

But let’s take this new woman and wine venture on its face and ask, what is it about the female experience that suggests they need their own wine website/clubhouse? Julie Brosterman, founder of Womenwine.com I think answers my question when she explains in her press release, "Traditionally, the world of wine — from making
and teaching about wine, to buying wine in stores and restaurants —
has been male dominated, a ‘men’s thing’, but today women make 60% of
all wine purchases and account for over 50% of all wine consumption in
the U.S.," she adds. "http://www.womenwine.com/ will help women find
their own voice when it comes to wine and become smarter wine
consumers. The site provides a connection for women who share a passion
for wine and travel."

Men. It’s because of men that women need their own wine club. Being a man who has for nearly two decades attempted to dominate the making and teaching of wine, I suppose I understand Ms. Brosterman’s point…to a degree. I just still don’t understand what there is about wine and the wine experience that will be different when explored by the opposite sex. I remain excited to discover this.