Do you ever think of wine as masculine or feminine? If you do, what wines do you consider to be masculine and feminine? Don’t ask me why, but this is something I have been thinking about recently. What the hell is wrong with me? I’m sure the psychologist our there have much to say about my psyche and why I have been trying to determine the sex of wines, but we don’t have the time and space to devote to my psychological issues.
As anyone who has ever read wine reviews can attest, wines are often described in terms of feminine or masculine. Some are even referred to as both feminine and masculine – more on that later. Here are a few examples where wines are referred to as either male or female.
Wine Enthusiast, Nov 15, 2006
Excellent with the essence of Maipo fruit. Licorice and black fruit carry the masculine bouquet, and next up is a palate of ripe berries that explode in a fireball of flavor.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, December 2008
Stylistically faithful to the vintage, it is more monolithic and muscular as well as less expressive aromatically, but substantial in size, and somewhat masculine.
Adams Bench Winery, Describing their 2006 Red Wine Reckoning
Masculine, Cab dominant steak wine: black cherry, tobacco and spice.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, April 2009
The 2006 Pongelli (Montepulciano, Sangiovese) is a gorgeous, floral wine with a pretty core of perfumed red cherries and sweet spices. This delicate, feminine wine is best paired with …
Alyssa J. Rapp, Founder & CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., as appeared on Snooth.com May 8, 2009
Rosa Regale is superbly feminine and wonderfully sweet without being cloying, offers flavors of juicy, ripe raspberries and strawberries.
This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the use of masculine and feminine language when describing wines. But is there anything wrong with it? I know there are some out there who are very troubled, if not down right mad, about this subject. As one person passionately explained to me, (and I’m paraphrasing here) “The use of sexual descriptors is outdated and brings up stereotypes that don’t truly provide us with an adequate explanation about the wine.” Are they right, wrong or simply making too much out of some colorful language?
Most of the masculine terms are used to describe big, brawny and powerful red wines while feminine often accompanies soft, delicate, perfumed laced white wines. You see there, now I have just done the same thing. I must be a sexist pig living in the dark ages. But when you read that sentence you knew exactly what I was inferring.
OK, fine, but what about a Pinot Noir? This world famous grape can lead to all sorts of problems when trying to explain the bouquet, flavors and tasting experience to someone. I have talked with many people I consider to be wine industry experts that say the Pinot Noir manages to be both feminine and masculine with dark, bold muscular strands of fruit tamed by genteel nuances of soft floral notes and having a light, smooth silky mouth-feel. Wow, there’s alot going on that bottle. So what are we to make of the Pinot Noir? Is it male, female or both? I know, Pinot Noir is a hermaphrodite.
Do you ever think of a wine as feminine or masculine? If so, what wines are feminine and what wines are masculine? Is it correct or proper to use these terms when referring to wines? Do you care? As for me, I’m just going to keep enjoying wines and not worry about the sexual orientation of this wine or that, especially Pinot. I’ve got my own issues to worry about. Cheers.
James,
Interesting question. I don’t tend to verbalize my wines by gender, but I probably have those stereotypes in my mind and “world view” of wine. To the quote on sexual stereotypes – stereotypes exist for a reason, they are statistical observations over time (right, wrong or indifferent) – they help people understand things. Even the simple stereotype of “This is the Cadillac of…” referring to quality. The problem occurs when you let those stereotypes direct your opinion of all wines (or race or gender or religion).
Good post!
Josh @nectarwine
It’s funny, as I started reading this I immediately thought of Pinot Noir. I actually think more about assigning personality types to wines. I can see Pinot Noir as being the wallflower artist type, maybe a writer. It’s shy and reserved, but full of depth and passion.
I can understand where the gender descriptors come from, but I certainly don’t think of wines in these terms.
Josh,
I completely agree with your thoughts on stereotypes. I am a firm believer of trying to approach every situation with an open mind and letting it all unfold before I make any conclusions. Maybe that’s why I am such a big fan of blind tastings. Thanks for your great comments.
James
I don’t think wines or grapes have any inherent gender, and attempts to shoehorn them for marketing purposes are typically clumsy and lead to some stupid attitudes. “Men should only drink red wine.” “Women only drink whites and rosés and sparkling wine.”
However, you can’t help the associations that your mind makes. A rich Bourdeaux blend that smells of leather and tobacco is always going to seem masculine to me. A light Chardonnay with an aroma of jasmine is always going to seem feminine. If I described an earthy French wine that smelled of barnyards and horse sweat as “like my ex-girlfriend”, I sound like a jerk insulting the wine. If I describe the same wine as smelling like my grandfather after a long day working at the farm, it’s now a wistful compliment.
It says nothing about how good or bad the wine is, nor who should drink it. Might as well be open and honest about what you were thinking while tasting the wine.
Complicating matters? Linguistics! Grammatical gender! In French, le grenache is masculine but the same grape in Spanish, la garnacha, is feminine. Or how about cultural associations? The only sherry drinkers I know around my area are male, but I understand that the drink is associated with old women in England.
I think someone could write a really long study on this topic without ever coming to any sort of useful conclusion.
[...] some parallels to my recent post on whether or not wines are feminine or masculine – Does Wine Have a Gender? I do think that some wines can be considered feminine and others masculine, but I’m unsure if [...]
I think that is an interesting point, it made me think a bit. Thanks for sparking my thinking cap. Sometimes I get so much in a rut that I just feel like a record.