Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and I was having a little trouble coming up with a topic for today’s program when I found it right there in my newspaper. Do you realize the marketing wine on the basis of gender is going to a whole new level? I have some thoughts on that.

Okay so Gallo produces this little brand called Redwood Creek, little - like two million cases a year. The marketing folks say it is being directed at men and attempting to get average men comfortable with drinking wine. The focus is camping, hiking, fishing and not the extreme sports. Hmmm… last I knew women liked to do those things too. But hey, the industry has spent years marketing to women, so I guess they view this as equal opportunity marketing. It seems a bit of a shame that when it comes to wine in the United States and Canada gender specific marketing is even deemed necessary. I mean Italian, French and German guys go out and drink wine with their buddies. And most of the serious wine collectors I know are men, rather than women. Why aren’t they marketing to women to start developing their wine cellars? I guess I just get annoyed by stereotypes; such as if it’s a pink wine it must be sweet and girlie – how wrong is that assumption? But I guess stereotypes come from somewhere or Joe six-pack wouldn’t have been the iconic guy he seems to have been. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.