"Lite" Wine for Women: Très Insultant!

This is a story that's been around for awhile, but was reposted today on ABCNews.com:

NAPA, Calif., July 4, 2005 — In California's wine country, where the aficionados proudly pledge to drink no wine before its time, one of the industry's oldest and largest winemakers is pulling grapes off the stem early — too early for traditional wine, but just right, they say, for something new.

"With that, we are able to get lower alcohol and lower sugar," said Tracey Mason of Beringer Blass Wine Estates. "It was also lower calorie, which was great."

Never mind the year on the bottle. In wine country, they're hoping this is the year of the woman.

Smart Business?

With fewer calories and less alcohol, Beringer's "White Lie" chardonnay — the wine for which they picked the grapes early — is aimed directly at women.

Creating a wine for women isn't just a gimmick, it could be smart business because winemakers say the old-world, male-dominated view of wine no longer holds.

Women make up 60 percent of wine consumers, according to industry research. Among couples, women make 80 percent of the wine-buying decisions.

'Voluptuous Wine'

O'Brien Cellars' new wine, Seduction, is designed around not-so-subtle marketing. It comes in a stylish red sack and is described on the back as "a voluptuous wine with sensual flavors and a velvet kiss."

"Our target consumer," said Bart O'Brien of O'Brien Cellars, "is an upscale, sophisticated woman who knows wine and can really appreciate what we've done — both inside the bottle and also … outside the bottle."

The marketing of a wine can be as important as the taste, said Leslie Sbrocco, a wine columnist and author of "Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing Wine."

"Really, women look at wine from an experiential standpoint," Sbrocco said. "It's not always what's in the glass. It's the setting. It's who you're with. It's what you're having at the table."

They must not have "focus-grouped" any of the upscale, sophisticated women I know, who all enjoy a wide variety of wines, including those masculine, full-bodied reds. I suppose this sort of thing was inevitable, given the popularity of "lite" beers and other flavor-challenged cuisine.