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ShareThe connection between wine and women is perhaps so strong, that even teetotallers often get tempted enough to flirt with either. But mention one and the other almost seems to follow. While I do concede that many a woman has driven man to alcohol, I have never seen the connection as logically obvious.
Poetically, it is another thing altogether; wine and women are like the two bars of a rhyme. Omar Khayyam was mesmerised by it. Oscar Wilde spoke about it. Winston Churchill held forth on both topics often and with much fervour. The topic is hardly one to be evaded, let alone avoided.
Of late a new wine and women connection has been evolving and emerging in India. Women are, in more ways than one, leading the wine revolution. Nothing new in this when you look at the world and realise that one of the biggest markets today, Japan was nothing till the women started drinking wine. Very soon the men had little choice but to follow. It was either that or watch half a bottle of expensive wine going waste every time they dined with a pretty lass.
Today Japan is one of the largest markets for champagne and high-end expensive wines. All thanks to the same hand that otherwise also rocks the cradle.
India, in that sense, isn't too different. Alcohol, like cricket has been an extremely male domain. Few women have bothered to venture forth and post all the heckles and taunts of a conservative society, few have stuck around.
But wine has helped provide a whole new platform. Women no longer have to feel compromised. They have a drink that is much acceptable universally as a social unisex drink and if anything, women are better equipped to smell out the nuances than most men. All in all, wine definitely has a positive feminine incline.
This has been further heightened by yet another interesting phenomenon. Pretty young ladies who have worked or lived abroad and are now married in India have adapted well to their homely duties but the corporate desires burn strong beneath. A handful have launched themselves into the world of wines as entrepreneurs, circumnavigating the globe, tasting the best of wineries and then setting up representation for them here in India.
The ideas to import wine for all of them may have started small but the very fact that these businesses are still around and are doing very well just shows that the industry is not shut to such ideas. In fact, the industry loves a feminine touch to things. For too long wine has been peddled by men of business who have considered wine no more than a tough FMCG. Women thankfully have brought a whole new set of sensibilities to the game. They have also made wine more appealing to women consumers who were otherwise not too sure of approaching this beverage.
At the time of writing this, I know of Neethu Seth (Wine Rack, Mumbai), Kadambari Kapoor (Gusto Imports, Kolkata) and Viveka Gupta (SV Distributions, Mumbai) who are the three musketeers of the Indian wine industry. Nothing gladdens my heart more than pretty damsels who bear the cup of this elixir of life. Sure they are all happily married but for me their work is more to be coveted than other things.
The writer is a sommelier
