Of Wine and Women

While surveys suggest that most women continue to buy just one or two bottles at a time for immediate consumption, a growing number of female devotees are discovering the pleasures--and surprising affordability--of starting a small collection or cellar and allowing wines to develop over time. When wine is young, its fruit often pops out of the glass, but as it ages--if the wine comes from good soil and a good producer--the fruit fades and the complexity deepens. Women may actually appreciate the nuances of flavor and bouquet more than men do, because studies suggest that they have a more acute nose and palate. To anyone familiar with young wine only, the old stuff comes as a revelation. And you don't have to mortgage the house to start acquiring; $60 a month will do.

That's how Ronni Olitsky began collecting. A mom, wife, music teacher for tots and co-founder of the Polka Dots (a pop band for young children) in Concord, Mass., she's in charge of her family's wine cache. Olitsky has discovered that even an entry-level wine from a really good producer ages well. She shoots for the best wine in her price range and buys just four to six bottles a month to lay down in the coolest part of her cellar. Food writer Melissa Clark, author of Chef, Interrupted, takes the same approach. But while Olitsky uses her cool New England basement, Clark, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., decided to build a protected environment for her bottles. "I want them to grow old gracefully," she explains. Rather than investing in a refrigerated wine closet, she had a carpenter construct a simple room in her cellar and plunked in an air conditioner. Both women focus on bottles that cost between $10 and $15 apiece that will give plenty of pleasure in five to 10 years. Neither has much interest in holding the wines for many decades, a practice that requires big-budget wines and storage facilities.

According to Hermacinski, this bargain level of wine collecting is mostly neglected by men. "They often shop by reading the Wine Spectator for their high-scoring and expensive recommendations," she observes. Women are more likely to ask advice from a person at a wine shop, according to a survey by Constellation Wines U.S. They appear to be less influenced by formal ratings. (Both genders, however, can be suckers for a nice label, according to the survey, though men are more drawn to images of châteaux, coats of arms and braiding, as opposed to the scenic and floral labels that attract women.)

Of course, it's what's on the inside that really counts. And that falls very much under the mystical influence of time. A bottle of wine, as Maya, the oenophilic waitress in Sideways points out, reflects the soil, the sun and the rain of the year its grapes were grown. Its ultimate flavor, though, will also reflect the burnishing influence of the years it lay in wait of a corkscrew. As more women discover that age-old truth about wine and waiting, it's a good bet that fewer will settle for the little White Lie of a cutesy label.