Tag Archives: wine

Surprise in the world of wine: the best wine grower of 2011 is a woman.

Astonishing? Not really. Women are more and more interested in wine, becoming wine growers, wine stewards, buyers or just consumers. Let’s look at their importance in the sector.

Wine is not solely reserved for men

Even though a long tradition links men and wine (cf. “Women and wine”), women were often kept back from its consumption and production. Female drunkenness, considered to be vulgar, was banned. It was a privilege permitted only to prostitutes. Yet, in her book entitled “Les femmes et l’amour du vin,” the French researcher Segolène Lefèvre reveals that in antiquity, women from Babylon took part in libations and even queens could drink wine. A situation quite opposite to that of Athens, where women didn’t have the status of citizens and where their attendance during banquets would have been considered scandalous.

This is all changing today. Women have not only become consumers but a considerable economical target: 70% of wine purchases in France are made by women.
Many events have taken into account women’s investment in this domain. In 2007, Didier Martin created the “Féminalise” competition. Female professionals and oenologists get together once a year in Beaune to vote on the best wines. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to the best quality wines but, above all, “it’s the guarantee to have a wine which has been liked by women and which will seduce men”. The international women and wines competition was also created in 2007. Competitors are male and female but, as with the Feminalise competition, the jury is exclusively formed by women. Two competitions in which the medals awarded guide women’s purchase decisions. They shed light on the role of women in the world of wine.