Why don't more women drink Port wine?

[Roy Hersh]

My flight is delayed and this is the question that has come to mind. I've been 2.5 hours between flights and now have a 3 hour additional delay. Lots of time ahead of me to ponder this one. What are your thoughts?

[Michael Hann]

Perhaps women, as a group, prefer less aggressive and assertive wines, both with reference to flavor and with reference to alcoholic strength? Maybe women, as a general tendency, prefer "easy drinking" wines. After all, what is the alcoholic strength of white zinfandel? Veteran port drinkers may forget, but port wine -- at 20% alcohol by volume -- is substantially stronger than ordinary table wine. My wife will sometimes raise her eyebrows and comment on the high alcohol in a red wine -- towards the end of the bottle, after she has drunk several glasses (and therefor, her comment is driven my her response to the alcohol she has consumed) -- when the red wine has +14% alcohol by volume.

[Peter W. Meek]

It's starting to look like a continuous spectrum from the highest alcohol standard wines (I have a 16.5% Cal-Primitivo in my cellar) and the lowest fortified wines (I seem to recall one with 18%). I know my wife dislikes the feeling she gets if she has more than three "standard" drinks. That doesn't allow for much port after splitting a bottle of wine with dinner. (A standard drink contains 1/2 oz, 18 ml, or about 14 Grams of pure alcohol: a 750 of 12% wine contains about 5 standard drinks; a standard drink of port should be about 3 Oz; a 1.5 oz shot of 80-proof.)

I suspect it may have much to do with what I term alcohol-prone and alcohol-adverse people. My wife begins drinking fairly quickly and tapers off almost immediately. The first glass might take ten-plus minutes; the second might take half an hour; the third might not be finished. My first glass might take twenty minutes, but then they go faster and faster if I don't make a serious effort to keep things under control.

I don't know for sure how the numbers go: man/woman, adverse/prone, but I suspect that more men are prone and more women are adverse.

[oscarquevedo]

Perhaps women, as a group, prefer less aggressive and assertive wines,

I agree with you Michael, women hardly drink whisky or vodka unless in cocktails. The same for Port, but probably more women enjoy Rose Port than men.

Roy, how many women do we have registered in the ? Maybe it can help to answer the question

[Moses Botbol]

You have met the lushes around Boston; they'll drink you down to your last ruby. I know a few women that love port, but they do not like dry wines that much except for white zin with ice. Trying to keep this polite... I think women are more perception bound in what they like and don't like and if their perception is that it's too sweet and they don't like it; there's no winning.

Where I live there is a big Portuguese and Italian population and obviously the Portuguese women are familiar with port. Italians have some affinity towards sweet wine for long time. The woman who likes port has to be able to hold their own. This is not a drink for thimble and you’re buzzed.

Being fortified and/or sweet does not detract women from drinking port than it does for men. Think of one of the sherry stereotypes- old women. I am confident there are plenty of grannies that love their Madeira too. I have never met a woman who did not like Sauternes.

[Brian C.]

I think it goes back to the image of old men sitting in leather chairs and smoking cigars and drinking port. Conversely, would any guy ever want to drink a cosmo?

[Roy Hersh]

What the heck is a Cosmo? Isn't that some women's magazine?

[goncalo devesas]

From what I heard PInk from Cruz (as all the basic Ports from this brand), it´s being a success in France, quite fashionable for women, but unfortunately we´re not speaking about the best market for quality... better than nothing

[Peter W. Meek]

What the heck is a Cosmo? Isn't that some women's magazine?

Short for Cosmopolitan (probably invented in the 1970s)
From Wikipedia:

Type: Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume: Vodka
Served: Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish: Lemon slice, lime wedge
Standard drinkware: Cocktail glass
IBA specified ingredients:
5.0 cl Vodka Citron
1.5 cl Cointreau
1.5 cl Fresh Lime juice
3.0 cl Cranberry juice
Preparation: Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and double strain into large cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.
Notes: The drink should be a frothy bright pink colour

[Glenn E.]

a frothy bright pink colour

Oh, so THAT'S what Croft was trying to match!

[Roy Hersh]

Peter,

It is one thing not being able to tell when Derek is kidding around, heck, he doesn't even speak the same language.


But did you really think I am so clueless that I did not know what that cocktail was (considering I spent most of my life working in the hotel/restaurant/club scene?

Now back to women ... and why more of them don't drink Port wine!

[Derek T.]

It is one thing not being able to tell when Derek is kidding around, heck, he doesn't even speak the same language.

Roy is absolutely correct. I can't speak American.

[Peter W. Meek]

RE: Cosmo

... did you really think I am so clueless that I did not know what that cocktail was?

Eh.

Deadpan jokes get deadpan rejoinders.

Did you really think I didn't know you were joking?

[Peter W. Meek]

Now back to women ... and why more of them don't drink Port wine!

Beats me. I try to be selective about the women I hang out with; most of them DO like port.

[Amber A.]

As a woman in the wine world, who is a Port drinker herself, I think it has nothing to do with sweetness, aggressiveness or alcohol. The stereotypes of women preferring White zin or light whites is very outdated. Women drink full bodied, alcoholic and complex wines just as often as men. Now this is just broad generalizations but women tend to drink wine for a different reason than men, namely we drink it for the taste. While men often get caught up in the "left brain" aspects of wine--the collecting, following scores, buying wine as investments, tracking vintages and other "wine geeky stuff"---women's wine drinking (and buying) habits tend to focus more on the "here and now" as in, will I enjoy this wine in my glass?

Which leads us to Port.

Port is a complex drink that often people receive a poor introduction to. I know I did. My first Port was a 20 yr old Tawny that I tried when I was a relatively new wine drinker and I thought it was horrible! I didn't know enough about wine or my personal tastes to know why I didn't like it, I just knew that I didn't like the raisiny, coffee flavors and (to me at least) off balance alcohol. It was like introducing black coffee to a 7 year old. While I saw the different labels of "ruby", "tawny", "vintage" and so forth, I had no clue if any of those wines would be more enjoyable than what I just tried. So needless to say, I moved on from Port towards other wines that were easier to enjoy. It took a long time for me to decide to try Port again and by then I had grown as a wine drinker and was more knowledgeable about what I would enjoy. But my path probably would have been different if I had a better first introduction-not so early in my wine experience and more likely a nice ruby! I probably would have been on the path to Port appreciation a lot sooner.

Now men (even if they also had a bad 1st experience with Port) might be intrigued by the "cerebral" aspects of Port-its history and tradition, the collectibility and investment potential and continue exploring. They might be intrigued by the different styles of Port and more likely to want to experiment with those different styles. Even if their palate is not quite ready for Port, their general approach to wine drinking makes men more likely than women to look beyond their initial tasting impression. They might not be 100% in love with it now, but they're thinking ahead to when they will. And maybe men's palate adjust more quickly to these kinds of "acquired tastes"? Men do tend to start drinking coffee at a younger age than women.

While women have just as much potential to truly appreciate and enjoy Port as men, their natural inclination to approach wine from a focus of "enjoying what is in my glass now" means that they are far more likely to get turned off by a bad 1st experience with Port. Eventually, like me, they may come back and be willing to give it another shot but the "hook" for women has to be what it says to their palate. They're not going to like Port just because someone tells them it is a great wine and this is how it is suppose to taste. They need the right wine at the right time for their palate to make the light bulb to go off and they get hooked. Port is not like Cabernet or Chianti--where it is easy to understand and easier to forgive a bad experience. It takes time and effort to really appreciate, and while women (stereotypically) have a lot of patience when it comes to husbands, work and kids, when it comes to wine.....we just want something we like dammit!

[Eric Menchen]

While men often get caught up in the "left brain" aspects of wine--the collecting, following scores, buying wine as investments, tracking vintages and other "wine geeky stuff"...

Ooooops. I resemble that remark.

But really, one of the best explanations I've yet read.

[Glenn E.]

While men often get caught up in the "left brain" aspects of wine--the collecting, following scores, buying wine as investments, tracking vintages and other "wine geeky stuff"...

Ooooops. I resemble that remark.

Me too!

I agree - one of the best explanations I've seen!

[Eric Ifune]

Also agree, great explanation.

[Shawn Denkler]

I know many men with fabulous Bordeaux collections that lament their wives lack of interest in their collection. I think men are "collectors" far more frequently that women in many fields, but this is very true in wine collecting. It is not just port that women are not very interested in.

[Roy Hersh]

Thank you Amber and Sarah for some very astute observations.

John Gray was right after all, you women really are from Venus.