By The Way - Wine, Women and Vital Stats

If there’s one thing that irks me is the way waiters often assume that choosing wines is the man’s job. Walk into a fancy restaurant and the wine list is offered to him – not to the lady who may just perhaps know a lot more about wines. Many of my girlfriends suffer the same insult and have the same grouse. And when our partners direct the wine list to us, take a look at the waiter – you’ll probably find surprise, sheepishness, incredulousness on his face.

It’s no surprise that women these days know how to choose, buy and enjoy our wines. Heck, it’s been like that for yonks. Recently Vinexpo, the largest professional wine and spirits exhibition in the world, conducted a study of wine drinking attitudes of over 4000 women in five countries including Japan. Here are some of the statistics which may be news to the waiters out there, but it’s something we’ve known for a long time.

Six out of 10 enjoy a glass of wine at least once a week. As women become more mature, wine becomes an increasingly regular source of enjoyment: 72.2% of women over 60 drink at least one glass of wine a week, compared to 60% of 18-30 year olds.

The majority (53.7%) see drinking wine as an art of life rather than a tradition (39.9%) or cultural product (42%).

We enjoy wine at social events amongst friends (68.6%) and during meals (71.2%).

Contrary to popular belief, we prefer red wine which accounts for over 60% of wines they purchase.

When asked why we drink wine, 79.3% say it’s to "enjoy the taste". In fact, more than nine out of 10 say this in Japan and in the US.

Over 44% of us select our wines on our own, without advice or assistance, thank you.

“In all five countries, women are clearly making independent choices. They enjoy wine as an art of life and associate it with friendship and sharing,” said Robert Beynat, Chief Executive of Vinexpo. The overall finding was that women have become “liberated wine drinkers, adopting an epicurean attitude towards wine”.

Only 3.6% consider it a man’s drink.

So give credit where it’s due, and hand over the wine list.

- Ee Waun