Wine Review Online’s very own Leslie Sbrocco, who wrote the book Wine for Women, and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, have been tapped to judge next month at the first-ever wine competition for women only, sponsored by the national organization Women for Wine Sense.
There also are a number of exceptional women winemakers, such as Dawnine Dyer and Carol Shelton, on the judging panels. The idea, as it has been explained, is to find the “wines women want.”
While I believe this is a tremendous marketing ploy — studies show that a huge percentage of the wines consumed in the home are purchased by the woman of the house — I wonder if there really is a feminine palate and a masculine palate.
I’m not so sure there is a gender divide when it comes to wine. For example, if Leslie and Dawnine are sitting on the same panel and Leslie loves a wine but Dawnine spits it out in disgust, which one would you say is representative of the woman’s point of view?
I remember a panel I had one year at the Monterey Wine Competition (I’m the Director of that competition) in which a well-known woman winemaker from the Central Coast came to me in frustration to explain why her panel was being so stingy with medals. Seems she was on a panel with another woman from the wine industry who worked on the sales side.
“It’s uncanny,” the woman winemaker told me, “but if I really like a wine I know she’s going to hate it. And if I don’t like a wine, I know she’s going to love it!”
Or consider two great Pinot Noir producers from Sonoma County, Gary Farrell and Merry Edwards. Farrell makes elegant, sometimes delicate Pinots that are typically aromatic and smooth as silk. Edwards makes Pinots that are dense and powerful and kick you upside the head (in a very good way, I should add).
Which would you describe as masculine and which feminine? So I’m not so sure wine tasting preferences split along lines of gender. But I do know from the cast of judges that the sessions will be lively and fun to watch. And the results should be very interesting, to say the least.
And I would bet a whole bunch of he-men wine enthusiasts will just love whatever the ladies come up with!
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