If anyone has seen the "Man Cold" from Man Stroke Woman on YouTube, you will know that there is a distinct difference in how men and women react to situations. There has been a litany of books on how we can and need to understand each other, how men are from Mars and women are from Venus, how we need to learn the art of communicating with each other so we can live in harmony. Taking all of this into consideration, you know the battle of the sexes was never going to escape the wine world. For those working in the wine world, this is no new discussion, but for me I find it worth a mention and am keen to know what the lovewine community thinks one way or the other.

A friend of mine is a junior judge in New Zealand for a number of wine tastings and competitions and recently, she told me that while judging at a show, there were 26 judges, 3 of them were women and only one of those was a senior judge, the other two were junior judges. I am constantly amazed at the gender imbalance when it comes to these kinds of things. With the exception of Jancis Robinson MW the majority of wine communication globally is driven by men and yet increasingly more and more women are involved, interested and engaged with wine from consumers right through from winemakers to viticulturists. We are very lucky in New Zealand to have only one of the few female Masters of Wine in the world, Jane Skilton MW living here amongst us. We also have wine writer Jo Burzynska who judges for the IWSC ( International Wine & Spirits Competition) and wine writer Joelle Thomson from MiNDFOOD. You also can't overlook Erica Crawford, one of the leading global female wine marketers, who for many years people thought was in fact the "Kim" behind the successful brand " Kim Crawford Wines." Globally there are some fantastic women working in and with the wine industry, sharing their thoughts, recommendations and view, from a female perspective. A stand out for me globally is Leslie Sbrocco as well as Natalie McClean.

I am constantly amazed at the imbalance in wine communication generally speaking. I would say that 80% of wine communication is driven by men and don't quote me, but am pretty sure that the balance in terms of wine purchasing is more like 50/50 and some people would argue that women, as the general household shopper and with wines available in supermarkets, are increasingly becoming the more dominant purchaser. I know a few years back when I did my first wine appreciation course, there were 3 times the amount of women in the class than there were men, so it's not because we are disinterested that's for sure!

The NZ wine industry is full of women who are making their mark on the wine world. A few to mention are Jules Taylor, Michelle Richardson, Rebecca Salmond from Odyssey Wines, Swan Michel at Domaine Georges Michel and you can’t really go far without mentioning one of the leading Central Otago winemakers- a woman- Carol Bunn. I am sure there are loads more out there and hope that the lovewine community will name their picks for female winemakers to watch. There has in fact been the question posed could you tell the difference between a wine made by a man and one made by a woman. That is an interesting test that I will have to try some time and if anyone has any thoughts on that I am keen to know...recommendations too would be great.

There has equally been discussion on whether men and women taste wine differently?  Are women more likely to be super-tasters? Dr.Linda Bartoshuk's seminal research on taste sensitivity carried out at Yale Medical School in the 1990's is a much quoted and discussed scientific background to this. The response to paper laced with PROP (6 n-propylthiouracyl a thyroid medication) placed on people's tongues revealed wide differences in their response to bitterness.  Bartoshuk also found tasting ability directly related to the number of taste buds, which she measured by counting fungiform papillae, the structure that holds taste buds on the tongue. Based on this data, Bartoshuk divided people into three broad categories:

• Supertasters roughly 25% of the population, who live in a "neon world" of flavours and are particularly sensitive to bitter substances like the tannins in wine.
• Tasters, who make up 50% of the population.
• Non-tasters 25% of the population including Bartoshuk herself, who live in a "pastel" world of flavours.

While Bartoshuk discovered no difference between males and females per se, she did find a higher concentration of super-tasters among women: 35% of women are supertasters as opposed to 15% of men. She also found a higher concentration of super-tasters gender does show up in taste preferences. Female super-tasters dislike high concentrations of sweet and fat while male supertasters love them. Yet again the world of science baffles me as I definitely love fat and sugar, so I guess that make me no "super taster," much and all as I would so prefer the "neon world" to pure "pastel."

Gender differences also emerge in the ability to detect aromas. Pamela Dalton, a sensory researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia, discovered that women of child bearing age are particularly proficient in detecting low threshold odours which are lost on men, pre-pubescent girls and post menopausal women. Now that is where nature is playing a cruel trick, as just when your aroma detection skills are at their peak and you can savour the wonderful sensory qualities of wine,  it is exactly the time when if you get pregnant and can't drink it! Mother Nature is a real b%$tch sometimes isn't she? Although on reflection, maybe child bearing fact correlates with the enjoying the sensory engagement with wine..mmmm maybe Mother Nature is a winemaker in her spare time!

Whatever the research or the medical science behind it all, I do think women and men engage with wine differently.  I believe that women share a wine that we love with the girls, much the same way that we share the name of our great hairdresser or the small boutique with the great 25% off sale. We are willing to give something new a try and are not embarrassed if we don't like it. In general and in my experience men are more concerned with how they look when they order a wine and women are more concerned with who they are drinking the wine with! Men don't want to be wrong when it comes to wine, while women are happy to experiment and share.

One strength of women is that they're more prone to open conversation and building relationships; a bonding experience encouraged all the more by wine. Wine makes you want to socialise to open up, to share a conversation, so I think women and wine are a natural match.

I am not anti-men at all, in fact I love them, especially my husband. I think that the wine industry is changing very fast and there are legions of men who are embracing the voice that women are having in the global wine community, are delighted to share their experience and thoughts and are joining the conversations.

I think a community like lovewine is a place to share our passion for the grape, to celebrate all the passionate winemakers, male and female, to encourage and nurture people to engage with and talk about wine in their own words and share their wine experience and moments. lovewine is a place where people who love wine regardless of gender can gather,discuss and engage and it is more to do with the personality than the gender. Maybe lovewine will be the wine place where we can perfect the art of communication so we can live in vinous harmony. For me, so far I am enjoying the journey of discovery and keen to see where that takes me...how about you?