And if it is, how exactly are we to market to women?

When I imagined wine far before I became involved in the business, I saw two women sipping on some white wine, a Chardonnay or maybe a Pinot Grigio. I actually never connected wine with men.

Fast forward to 30 some odd years later, when I asked an artist friend to give her take on an advertising campaign I created. The graphics were colorful, the bottle prominent, and the imagery fairly neutral, but far from traditional. The ad was clicked on mostly by men, by an overwhelming 90%.

I showed her the ad without preamble. Her answer when she saw the ad? She said, “Well, it’s quite obvious. Wine is male. The bottle itself is a phallic symbol.” Personally, it had never occurred to me.

Over the last few months with the rise of female content creators publishing Instagram reels, I have noticed how the bottle is often the object of guzzling, usually in the kitchen, or maybe in the foyer while kicking off high heels. The guzzling of course isn’t real, but a way to relate with other women feeling the same frustrations after a day of juggling husband, kids, pets, jobs, and perhaps in the same throws of constant content creation.

Have I ever seen a grown man guzzling from a bottle in despair? Not until last week, when the Wine Folly reposted a video of a guy sitting dejected under a downpour, pouring not a bottle, but a glass of wine, literally all over his face. The video was captioned on Twitter, “We’ve all been there.”

I haven’t poured a glass of wine over my face, but I have been in the “when it rains it pours” moment. However, I haven’t looked perfectly coiffed and feeling like I needed to down a bottle.

I like to envision women on equal footing, without the display of abusing alcohol, without the unintended inuendo. As a marketer, I ask myself if this 2020 image connects with a certain adult female audience. Is this the perfect replacement for my outdated, average-consumer image of two 30-40-something women chatting over glasses of Chardonnay?

Perhaps, despite the 40-something beauty filters, these bold, energetic women are taking the ultimate phallic symbol by the horns and turning it literally upside down. By doing so, they may be tapping into an enthusiastic female audience that ignores most wine content, traditional, educational or otherwise.