Founex, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world of wine, take notice: women have arrived. This is the clear message that came out of the annual general meeting Friday of International Associated Women in Wine, who compiled what appears to be the first-ever survey of women about their wine buying and consumption habits. National surveys were relatively small samplings done in seven major wine producing countries but the same thread ran through all the results: women are the ones the wine industry should be targeting for marketing. the group says the next step is to carry out a larger and more sophisticated survey that might include, for example, the US.
Women are now buying wine more often than men, they are knowledgeable consumers and tend to select their wines first by region, then by grape and only much further down the list, by price and because wine is on special offer. They buy for the family and in most countries they prefer to buy it to have at home, although buying to share with friends is a close second. Forget the old cliches about women drinking mainly white wines and sweet wines: they like it red, dry, and of good quality.
The sharpest message is aimed at wine stewards, who well over 75% of the time hand the wine card to a man rather than a woman in a restaurant- but the selection is made by both, with women often the wine expert in the family.
The group, which brings together women wine producers from around the world, says the next step is to carry out a larger and more sophisticated survey that might include, for example, the US, not part of this survey.
Photo: women wine producers from Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Greece, Italy and Spain offered their wines to the group to sample during breaks from their meeting.