A matter of taste
By Erika Gelinard | theage.com.au | 11 March
The theory that men and women hail from different planets seems reasonable enough but divisions between the sexes over wine preferences opens up a whole new galaxy.
Historically, the perception has been that women drink white wine while men prefer red. Times have changed and while significant differences remain between men and women when buying and drinking wine, stereotypes are not always accurate.
"Men and women are just different. Why wouldn't they have different tastes in wine?" says Manda Duffy, sales and marketing manager for Barambah Wines in Queensland. It sounds obvious but defining this difference is tricky.
"Very little wine consumer sensory testing is carried out in Australia," says Leigh Francis, sensory researcher at the Australian Wine Research Institute. Last year, the institute conducted a study on "sensory proprieties" of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz on 203 Sydney red-wine drinkers, with roughly equal numbers of both sexes. And the conclusion?
"There is no relationship between gender and taste," Francis says. The determining factor for taste is genetics, not gender. "We are not equal when it comes to palate. People are sensitive to some flavours and not to others."
In the 1990s, the impact of genetics was proved by Yale University professor Linda Bartoshuk, who devised a bitterness test as part of a taste-based research project.
Taste is related to the number of tastebuds on the tongue: the more tastebuds, the stronger the ability to taste. Bartoshuk classified the American population into "supertasters", "medium tasters" and "non-tasters". Supertasters live in a "neon world" of flavours; non-tasters in a "pastel world".
"Women are more likely to be supertasters - that is, they respond more to components such as bitterness and tannin in wine," says Stephen Charters, professor of Champagne management at Reims Management School in France.
Gender generally influences the sense of smell, Charters says. During pregnancy, women have even more acute senses.
"Research shows that women are somewhat more sensitive to smells than men," Francis says. "A larger proportion of men see this sense decline between 60 and 69." However, a person with a better sense of smell does not necessarily have a superior sense of taste, he says.
The president of the NSW Sommeliers' Association, Ben Moechtar, says: "If women can smell better, they would taste better because you can have maybe five sensations with your palate, but smell hundreds of aromas."
Moechtar believes women generally have better palates than men, an opinion shared by many in the industry.
Certainly women describe wine differently, often comparing a wine with flowers, perfumes and food, while men refer to earth and forest, says Yalumba's winemaker, Louisa Rose.
"Women are more evocative," she says.
But if men and women have different palates - more a perception than proven fact - does that explain why they tend to favour different wines?
John Geber, owner of the Chateau Tanunda estate in the Barossa Valley, has noticed many more women drink white wine than red. "Females would rather go for an elegant and light structure of wine, like a riesling, semillon blanc or pinot grigio, than a powerful one such as shiraz or cabernet sauvignon," Geber says.
Women do appreciate red wine. Last June, during the Brisbane Fine Wine Festival, 14 women judges awarded the Barambah "wine women want" trophy to the 2005 Chateau Tanunda Lyndoch shiraz.
"This trophy absolutely proves the preconception that women prefer white wine is not true," says Duffy, the woman behind the event. Having worked in the male-dominated wine industry for 24 years, she has noticed the balance tipping in the past 10 years: the number of female winemakers, sommeliers and wine tasters is on the rise.
"Customer is queen" is her motto and the idea of the Barambah trophy is "to show that the perception of what women like and reality are two different things".
Master of wine Toni Patterson also confirms that women's choices of wine challenge stereotypes: "I was invited to recommend wine for a women's conference meal, and I chose a white one with each course but 40per cent of them went for a red."
Physical factors could steer women in the white direction.
The level of alcohol can influence women's choice, Patterson says - reds are often 14per cent and over, while whites range from 10 to 14per cent. There are no statistics on the quantity of wine consumed by each gender but there is a consensus in the wine industry that women drink less and prefer lighter wines in terms of style, grape variety and alcohol level. "At a typical lunch, men start with a chardonnay and move to a cabernet sauvignon or shiraz, whereas women prefer a sauvignon blanc or bubbles," Moechtar says.
One physiological explanation behind women's love of sparkling is they are more tolerant than men to this wine's high acidity. "Men generally have milder palates than women," Geber says.
But psychological and social attitudes to wine have more influence than palates when it comes to gender difference. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2004-05 health survey shows 32.8per cent of women drink wine compared with 25per cent of men. Even more striking, the proportion of women drinking sparkling wine is three times higher than that of men.
"In some parts of Australia, wine is perceived to be much more a women's drink - at least in comparison to beer," Charters says.
Women come to wine when they are about 21 years old - earlier than men - and they account for much of the casual wine drinking in bars, says Ross Brown, chief executive of Brown Brothers.
In retail sales, women represent a large share of wine buyers and have a different criteria to men. Professor of wine marketing at the University of South Australia, Larry Lockshin, carried out a study on 300 Australian wine drinkers. Both genders' first criterion is to have previously tasted a wine. But for women, other factors in order of importance are: recommendation, brand name, grape variety and origin of the wine. Men focus on grape variety, recommendation, origin of the wine and medals or awards.
Men generally get to choose the wine at restaurants. Glass Brasserie's sommelier, Kim Bickley, notices that men order 70per cent of the time but she doesn't make assumptions. "I always ask who I should give the wine list to or I put it in the middle of the table," she says.
The difference between the sexes might be that "women are savvier when it comes to matching wine with food," she says. "They won't go directly for a full-bodied red."
Bickley doesn't think women are more adventurous in their choice of wine than men. "Older people are more adventurous but gender is irrelevant."
However she says women are always happy to ask questions. "In the past, women preferred white wine and men red but it becomes more even. Women are more and more educated and interested in wine."
First published by TheAge.com.au on March 11 2008
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