Is Wine Gay?

Posted by Tom Wark on Oct 31, 2007

Yeah, I’m in PR. A marketer. At heart, I’m a salesperson (hell, I once made a good living selling vacuum cleaners door to door). So I understand the importance of getting the consumer’s attention and setting yourself apart.

I understand the idea of market segmentation. I understand the idea of looking at the market by age, by ethnicity, by geography and by mindset and catering a product or pitch to the difference that exist between the market’s segments.

I understand too the benefits and potential of catering to the gay marketplace. I’ve worked with wineries that have specifically catered pitches to a gay demographic.

But there is something about Risquesommelier.com that gives me the heeby Jeebies(sp?).

Is it still necessary to appeal to the purely sexual when marketing to the gay community? Must a product or sales pitch to the gay community assume that  my neighbor down the street  is primarily concerned with getting laid? From the look of Risquesommelier.com you’d think this is the only thing on their mind.

The site describes its focus this way:

Sommelier is a Wine Interest style BLOG site targeting the Gay consumer
that goes far beyond the basic “Wine Critique” into detail riche
experiences in Wine, Cuisine, Travel, Luxury Goods, Art and Music… all
with a little lighthearted risque mischief."

Is there a wine blog that peddles sexual insinuations along side wine that is aimed at straights? Someone point me to it. I can see the benefits of a blog post on how to incorporate wine into the art of seduction. I can see the idea of a blog post that highlights the nexus between sex and wine. I can even wrap my arms around the idea of a blog that chronicles how a person incorporates wine into their love life. But a blog that insinuates that gays must see some kind of connection to sex in order to get interested in the content simply strikes me as too stereotypical to be of use.

Maybe I’m wrong.