If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, what would the ladies be drinking in the Venetian bars? What would the drink menus look like? Which spirits brands would grace the back bars? What wines would be poured? What beers on tap?

Maybe the real question is: Why should you care?

The answer to that one is fairly simple: Women are the most readily influenced and the most influential beverage consumers at the bar or dining table. Sounds like an enigma wrapped in a conundrum? Maybe so. But while seasoned bartenders instinctively know this about their female guests, thankfully for the rest of us, some new research provides hard numbers to support the notion that women—more so than men—read drink menus, ask questions of the bartender or server and are receptive to their guidance, love to sample and are very likely to try a new product or drink.

What’s more, anecdotes abound to attest that if they like said drink, women will urge others to give it a taste as well. In fact, women can influence those around them—male or female—to trade up, try a new drink or move to an entirely different beverage category.

Sounds like a guest you’d like to court, right?

Mike Ginley, president of Next Level Marketing, based in Westport, Conn., wonders why more bar and restaurant operators don’t do exactly that. “There’s a lot of money being left on the table,” he says.

In December 2006, Next Level, together with Nova Marketing Services, conducted an online survey of 1,311 individuals who had visited a casual dining restaurant in the last 30 days; 728 of whom had ordered beverage alcohol. Ginley shared his insights on some key findings: 30 percent of women describe themselves as primarily spirits drinkers, compared with 14 percent of men. “From a societal standpoint, things have changed dramatically for this generation. TV shows like ‘Sex And The City’ made it fashionable for women to drink spirits. While beer is the number one alcohol type for men, for women today, it’s spirits.”

And what about women as influencers? “Women will interact with other patrons at the bar,” says Bridget Albert, master mixologist at Southern Wine & Spirits of Illinois and director of the Academy of Spirits & Fine Service of Illinois, not to mention the fourth in a line of bartenders in her family, all female. “If an interesting drink comes out, a woman will ask the other guest what it is and whether they like it. Women are curious and they’ll experiment, then they’ll urge people around them to ‘Try it! Try it!’”

To guide that exploration of spirits and cocktails, menus matter most for women. Specifically, stand-alone drink menus, which are the top sources of drink information for women, according to Next Level/Nova. The next most important influencers are special price promotions, drinks listed on the food menu and recommendations by family members or friends. And, “Women are twice as likely as men to take a drink suggestion from a server or bartender than men,” Ginley says.

While Next Level/Nova shows strawberry, raspberry and peach as the top flavors favored by female imbibers, some new and unexpected cocktail flavors are now capturing female fans. Less sweet profiles and fresh herbs, along with exotic tropicals like mango, coconut and hibiscus are attracting women, according to drink maven Kathy Casey of Seattle-based Kathy Casey Food Studios.

“The assumption was always that women favor sweeter, fruitier drinks, and that’s not wrong,” she says. “But today, women are going for drier flavor profiles, like pear and cucumber, and layered flavors in spirits like gin. Women are willing to go beyond the expected.”


This also is true of cocktails. While flavored Martinis, Daiquiris, Pina Coladas, Vodka & Cranberry, Mudslides and Cosmopolitans are favored by female guests, women are now experimenting with other spirits in their cocktails.

Boston-based Legal Sea Foods came to many of the same conclusions as Next Level/Nova after conducting internal research; the operator of 34 restaurants used those learnings to launch its Raising the Bar beverage program in 2005. “These are not cocktails created with the male palate in mind,” says Sandy Block, M.W., vice president, beverage operations. “They’re all based on flavor—not brand pedigree—because we found that the female guest is more receptive to flavor.”

Popular drinks include the Mojito 23, a Mojito made with Ron Zacapa Centenario Rum, “a very flavorful, 23-year-old rum,” says Block. Legal Sea Food’s signature Cranberry Bog Lemon Martini, featuring Absolut Citron, cranberry puree, sour mix, Angostura Bitters and fresh cranberries, has attracted a strong female following. In fact, the absence of the cocktail from Legal Test Kitchen, a limited-menu concept in South Boston, elicited a passionate plea via email from a female guest who was “lost and saddened” and moved to “dab her tears” upon hearing that it was not available there. “Now that’s passion!” says Block.

The stand-alone drink menu is backed up by Legal Sea Foods servers trained to engage the guest, and who understand that women will dialogue on the issue of flavor, says Block.

That recognition is paying off. The Raising the Bar drink menu generates as much as 40 percent of drink sales at some locations; it’s in the mid- to high 20 percent range as a system-wide average.

Morton’s of Chicago has also found success with the Bar 12-21 program, which features increased lighting, softer finishes and fixtures such as purse hooks beneath the bar that make the traditionally male environment more female-friendly. The introduction of the Heavenly Mortinis—a selection of cocktails created by Francesco Lafranconi, director of mixology and spirits educator of Southern Wine & Spirits of America, that are topped with a Grand Marnier foam—definitely appeal to women.

“Women are a professional force in our world,” observes Tylor Field, III, vice president of wine and spirits for 70-location Morton’s. “If you are mostly appealing to the male professionals you are missing out on a large and very important audience.”

Larry Watson, general manager of Avalon in Louisville, Ky., agrees. The upscale restaurant caters to “professional women and soccer moms” with a Martini list that specifically targets female guests.
“Women always want to try something new, taste a new flavor, and they’re willing to trade up,” Watson observes. Avalon’s top seller is its Nuvo French, made with Absolut Vanilia Vodka, Chambord and topped with Korbel Champagne. The menu offers no drink descriptions, “which means they always ask. When we explain what it’s made with, the brand name gives them confidence that the flavor will be there, but ultimately it’s the flavor that intrigues,” he says.

A table of women, Watson says, will sample almost every Martini on the list, passing glasses around for everyone to try each one.

Some spirits marketers are getting in touch with their feminine side. X-Rated Fusion Liqueur, for one, is unabashed in its pursuit of women. The bright pink colored French vodka involves flavors of blood oranges, mango and passion fruit, and is touted as perfect for events including bachelorette parties, according to marketer Daucourt Martin Importers. Launched in 2004, the brand grew 30 percent in 2006, according to Mike Dennehy, director of communications.

Flavor is often the calling card for female-friendly spirits. DeKuyper continues its female appeal with the Tropical line, including Mango, Papaya and Pineapple Coconut. Alize Rose, new from Kobrand, blends French vodka with passion fruit, strawberry, lychee and rose essence. GIRL, recently released in the U.S. by By Necker Designer Drinks, combines Cognac and vodka with a hint of raspberry and lychee for a low-alcohol (25 percent ABV), mixable spirit.
Some spirits marketers are getting in touch with their feminine side. X-Rated Fusion Liqueur, for one, is unabashed in its pursuit of women. The bright pink colored French vodka involves flavors of blood oranges, mango and passion fruit, and is touted as perfect for events including bachelorette parties, according to marketer Daucourt Martin Importers. Launched in 2004, the brand grew 30 percent in 2006, according to Mike Dennehy, director of communications.

Flavor is often the calling card for female-friendly spirits. DeKuyper continues its female appeal with the Tropical line, including Mango, Papaya and Pineapple Coconut. Alize Rose, new from Kobrand, blends French vodka with passion fruit, strawberry, lychee and rose essence. GIRL, recently released in the U.S. by By Necker Designer Drinks, combines Cognac and vodka with a hint of raspberry and lychee for a low-alcohol (25 percent ABV), mixable spirit.

Others are playing the flavor-and-function card. Ecstasy, from Encore Brands, heralds its female appeal with a bright pink bottle and pomegranate, taurine and caffeine in a clear spirit. P.i.n.k. Vodka, imported from Holland, features caffeine and guarana and a sexy, cylindrical bottle. Tequila Rose, the strawberry cream tequila liqueur from McCormick Distilling, is tying into female band Bombshell’s tour.

Heaven Hill is very strategic in pursuing female consumers with Pama Pomegranate Liqueur, launched in 2005. While the flavor profile and packaging is created to appeal to both genders, the brand is marketed primarily to women with ads in fashion magazines.

“We’re going for a level of sophistication with our positioning,” explains Reid Hafer, brand manager. “The goal is to be upscale and elegant, but not so ultra-feminine. I think women can get turned off by too much femininity.”

Pama is also speaking to a cause near and dear to the hearts of women—breast cancer—as a sponsor of this summer’s Ultimate Cocktail Competition for a Cure, which will be judged by an all-female panel and raise funds for Y-Me, an organization that supports breast cancer patients and their families.

“Women drink spirits,” asserts Ginley. “This is a huge opportunity.”

The news about women and wine is not the fact that women consume their fair share. Next Level/Nova’s figures show the genders on par in identifying themselves as primarily wine drinkers, and research by the Wine Market Council indicates that women comprise 53 percent of the wine drinking population.

“The trend story isn’t in the percent of wine drinkers who are women—because the gender ratio is shifting as more men come into wine—but that women are the motivators of when we drink wine. They’re the ones bringing men to wine,” says Wine Market Council’s Gillespie.

Women are more prone than men to try a new wine. “Women are less afraid to make a mistake,” observes Gillespie. “Men are often uncertain as to whether they’re making a safe and acceptable choice. It goes [back] to the old adage that men don’t ask directions. Women do.”

One way women get that direction is through by-the-glass programs. “A great wine-by-the-glass list is where women will ‘shop’ for new wines,” says Karen Jess-Lindsley, president of Lindsley Management Consultant and a board member of Women for Wine Sense.

Founded in 1990, Women for Wine Sense offers an accessible venue for women to learn about wine and now boasts 700 members in 11 chapters around the country. Lindsley is also chair of Wines Women Want Grand Tasting, a sampling event held at the Four Seasons in San Francisco in June featuring award-winning wines from the first National Women’s Wine Competition, the first one ever judged by an all-female panel.

Women’s wine groups are on the rise. One making headlines is Divas Uncorked, a Boston-based group of African-American women founded in 1998 that presents wine dinners and recently formed a consortium to advise wine retailers and marketers on reaching the female demographic. The group also launched Divas Uncorked Chardonnay, developed with Mendocino Wine Co.

Given the growing sophistication of the female wine consumer, marketers risk offending women with “girlish” positioning, according to Michaela Rodeno, CEO of St. Supery Winery in Napa Valley, and a co-founder of Women for Wine Sense. “At St. Supery, we make no effort to tailor messages specifically to women, but we do present elegant and appealing label designs and bottles,” she says.

Other wine marketers are striking a more feminine chord with quirky names like White Lies and Marilyn Merlot (featuring Marilyn Monroe images on the label). Sokol Blosser Winery in Dundee, Ore. taps the “goddess” motif with Meditrina, a red blend named for the Roman goddess of wine and health.

Most research shows that women tend to consume light and refreshing to medium-bodied wines—the Next Level/Nova survey shows White Zinfandel, Merlot and Chardonnay as the top three varietals favored by women in casual dining restaurants—but there is evidence of exploration.

At the 91-unit Buca di Beppo, Riesling is being embraced by female guests, according to vice president of food and beverage Carron Harris, who notes that women are the most adventurous since the chain’s by-the-glass list was expanded from 12 wines to 24. “We still sell a lot of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio to women, but the Riesling trend shows they’re interested in getting beyond those two wines,” says Harris.

Even as they get beyond the norm, the female palate differs from the male. Organizers of the fifth annual Pinot Noir Summit, a blind tasting of the winners of the Pinot Noir Shootout held in Sebastopol, Calif. in May, reported that female judges preferred more elegant and balanced wines, while the male judges favored bolder expressions.

Pinot Noir is the top-selling by-the-glass varietal at West Town Tavern in Chicago, where the majority of the clientele is female. The 65-seat wine-focused eatery offers a broad wine list, with 20 wines by the glass. Women, says co-owner Drew Goss, are gravitating toward more complex wines.

“You always think women and white wine, but we’re not seeing that here,” says Goss. “We list everything by varietal, so we see the women working through the list according to their interest. There’s also a lot of trial because women will risk $7 on a glass of something they’ve never tried, which is how many of them got to Pinot Noir.”

Women also readily explore wine when it’s presented as part of a fundraising or charitable event where they can learn, taste and do good all at once. West Town Tavern’s annual Girl Food Dinner in June sold out again this year. The event features Chicago’s top female chefs, each preparing one of five courses, which are matched with five different wines; proceeds benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Other events, such as Honig Vineyard & Winery’s Wine, Women & Shoes—a shoe fashion show/wine tasting to benefit women’s charities—also regularly sell out. “Positioning wine in an environment where women can explore, learn and help others is a win-win-win,” says Lindsley.

But how can operators capitalize on the growing interest in wine among women on a daily basis? First, don’t assume. “Don’t automatically hand the wine list to the man,” says Gillespie. “And, approach the table with the understanding that women will be more prone to try something new. Ask, ‘Would anyone like to try our new Greek wines?’ Offer to pour a taste; women will take it and encourage others to try it.”

“Be prepared to talk about wine because women will ask,” says St. Supery’s Rodeno. “And be sure the by-the-glass list is exemplary.”

Opportunities abound to engage women in spirits, cocktails and wine, but beer may be the biggest untapped opportunity (pun intended). Seven percent of women polled by Next Level/Nova identified themselves as primarily beer drinkers and Anheuser-Busch reports 27 percent of on-premise beer drinkers to be female.

“Beer is low on women’s drink priority list,” says Kip Snider, corporate beverage director at the 15-unit Yard House chain based in Irvine, Calif.

Beer remains, for the most part, a “man’s drink” in the U.S. “It’s not that women don’t have the palate for beer, but we’ve been trained to drink other things, sweeter things,” says beer writer Lisa Morrison, also known as The Beer Goddess, of Portland, Ore.

Anecdotal evidence points to more women drinking beer in the Northwest, where flavorful craft brews originated, but by and large, beer marketers continue to target young adult males with sports sponsorships and imagery, male-oriented humor and other elements with definitive male appeal. One of the few brands to target women through advertising is Michelob Ultra; the effort may be playing a role in slowing the brand’s decline.

“A lot of women will say, ‘I don’t like beer; it’s bitter.’ That’s the perception,” says Morrison, who has run Suds Sisters beer classes for women since 1997. “Women don’t have a lot of experience with beer—they equate light color with light flavor, when in fact it’s often a more bitter beer. So, there is a reluctance to try new things, not because of lack of interest, but because of lack of confidence and fear they won’t like it.”

Present women with an extensive beer list, and the reaction is like “either a rabbit in the road or a kid in a candy story,” says Morrison. “Either way, they need direction and if given some, they’ll eagerly explore the flavor spectrum and get into the idea of beer and food together.”

The light beer category is favored by females, according to Next Level/Nova, and Anheuser-Busch reports a propensity toward imports. Women also prefer to drink beer straight from the bottle—no glass—versus males, who prefer draft or bottled beer poured into a glass, according to Next Level/Nova.

With a little education, women can embrace the full range of beer styles and flavors, says Morrison. In her classes she reports at least one participant always turns down a sample of stout, saying she doesn’t like dark beer. “Once I get her to sip it, try it, she’ll detect the sweet, almost chocolaty flavor. That’s always the person who comes up after class and asks for the bottle,” says Morrison.

That scenario plays out regularly at the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery in downtown Chicago. Entice a woman to sample the brewery’s stout with the Triple Chocolate Stout Cheesecake, “and you have a convert for life,” says executive managing partner Nicole Allison.

When faced with a female guest unsure of what beer to order, servers at the 29-unit chain based in Louisville, Colo. are trained to ask what else they enjoy drinking—coffee, tea, red wine, white wine—and suggest a beer with a similar taste profile. “Or, we work to match a beer with the food they’re ordering and help them make that connection,” says Allison.

Yard House servers take the same approach. “If we find they like Champagne, we’ll get them into a Belgian tipple. If it’s a Martini, we ask if it’s flavored and maybe move them to a Lambic, or a fruit beer,” says Snider. “Once they get into beer, they do tend to explore the list and get excited. And in a group, women are great. One will urge their friends to try something and suddenly there are five glasses of it. It’s amazing!”

The key to growing beer sales to women is engaging them and explaining that beer isn’t always what it appears to be, according to Morrison. “Write a beer list with women in mind—use descriptions! Train bartenders to use terms that make sense in context of what else women drink, and also to give a sample,” says Morrison. “Dispel the myths about light beer versus dark beer and introduce interesting beer and food pairings, like beer with Asian food.

“If you educate women and make them comfortable in the world of beer, you can bring in a lot of business you’ve never had before.”

Donna Hood Crecca is the editor of Cheers.