Is wine considered a feminine drink in your country?

42 comments

1. No, never heard such a thing regarding wine. There are probably still people around who think that fruity & sweet cocktails are only for women, but I think that’s it.

2. From my experience as a Greek, mostly wine and cocktails, I guess? But in a lot of places Here drinking alcohol at all is more of a ‘masculine trait, especially with drinks such as beer or whiskey

3. I would say that beer is strongly male coded, so most guys will drink beer in any situation. Even when it is non-alcoholic beer, or in the summer beer mixed with lemonade (Radler).

   Wine isn’t gender-coded, it only looks like that when guys have an overriding preference for beer. What’s feminine coded are sparkly wines like Champagne, prosecco, cava etc.

   There’s a geographical element too, there’s wine-growing areas where it’s part of the culture.

4. In Spain both beer and wine are equally consumed by all people. I travel a lot, but I have not seen a single country where so many women would drink beer.

5. I think it’s a culture thing. Our traditional alcohols are fruit based, wine and rakija, and there is a whole winemaking tradition. Manly men have been making and getting drunk on wine for a very long time here. That’s why there’s also not a class issue, it’s not a foreign luxury like in the northern countries, it’s always been popular with all classes here as we have the climate for it.

   However with the industralisation and globalisation grain-based drinks like beer and whiskey became more familiar and culture shifted a bit. Especially with young men, but wine still has a place and you won’t feel conscious or out of place drinking it with the guys.

   I’d say it’s neutral. With the trend being is it’s becoming more feminine, though still much more balanced than America.

   There are some variations, with Gemišt (white wine and mineral water) being considered more manly and Bambus (red wine and cola) being more feminine.

6. In the UK, I would say it’s still definitely gender coded, although it’s changing and wine is becoming more normal (both for men and working class people, since there’s the similar class element). It makes sense considering our similarities with America, and the fact that we are above the beer/wine line.

   There’s even a comedian with a ‘classic’ pub landlord character who says “Pint of beer for the fella, glass of wine or a fruit-based drink for the lady.”

   On that note, I would say that for some reason red wine is seen as more masculine, there’s a reason he picked white wine. I can’t explain that one.

7. I associate wine more with something women will drink but then also it’s a classic drink in restaurants (because you wanna feel fancy i guess) and my dad regularly drinks a glass of wine when he comes home from work
   Beer is probably more a male drink but then again i know plenty of women who love a beer also

8. When partying as a kid and when in uni, beers and wines felt very gender coded. Guys would have the cheapest beers from the grocery store, us girls were enjoying the cheapest wine we were able to stomach.

   Same thing with ciders too, they were very “feminine coded”

   But as an adult I’m not experiencing this anymore. When I go to restaurants with people from work, there’s a good mix of everyone enjoying everything. Lots of the men enjoying wine and lots of the women enjoying beer.

9. In Spain it depends on the food you will eat. Beer is your everyday “water”, but wine is when you want to enjoy a really nice meal.

10. Oh no! Over here wine is a unisex drink. Maybe beer could be more of a masculine drink.

11. Beer is indeed associated with men. I dont know many women who geniunely like it. Even less who would be at a bar and that is seriously the most preferred thing they’d order.

    Wine is neither male nor female. Thats more adult coded. Like not many 18 year olds drink wine, or if they do its just whatever is the cheapest. An appreciation of good wine and wine culture is usually only developed in the late 20ies at the earliest. Altho this might be different in regions with a strong wine culture (where wine is actually grown).

    Cocktails arent really a gender thing. Maybe the most elaborate ones with little umbrellas and bright colors are a bit weird to order for a man in certain settings (like a cool underground bar or club), but it can be done with enough confidence. But if youre sitting by a pool or beach, pretty much any cocktail is fair game for men as well.

12. Even in our northernmost canton grows very good wine, so it’s part of our culture. So is beer, and neither drink is very gendered. Beer is a bit more of a manly drink, though. When the fellas are out for a drink, they’ll drink beer. But when they’re visiting somebody to drink there, wine is a welcome drink too.

    Wine is a “now we’re getting serious”-drink. Not as serious as when somebody gets out the schnaps, though.

    When you visit somebody on a less drinky,.but more civil occasion, you bring flowers for the lady and a bottle of wine for the gentleman as a gift.

13. Denmark

    Everyone drinks beer (not teenage girls). Alcohol is alcohol, you just need to get wasted minimum from the age of 15. And we drink it like water. You need to drink to get through our education system. Things are pretty bad.

14. I would say no. But it is more common for women to go to wine houses in daily basis at lunch than man. It is also more common for men usually go to Rakı Houses (same house wine house but different set up) at dinner. Everyone who drinks appreciates one of the oldest wine culture on this land, and rakı which gave joy to our dinner with friends or beer which made you cool down during summer. At the end, no drink can be associated with any gender.

15. Strongly depends on the setting.

    In a restaurant or at home, not really. But in a bar or at parties it generally is.

16. Nope! In Greece wine is for men traditionally. Beer is associated with teenagers mostly.

17. Somewhat, but the division softened in last few decades. Beer is still seen as more masculine, but there is exactly nobody surprised at women drinking it. I’m a bit of a beer nerd and it was a non-issue meeting other female beer nerds.

    We are still largely a wine country and wine is for everyone.

18. From my mother’s experience, in the 50s/60s wine was considered a manly drink, and only women and teenagers (yes) would drink wine.

    Now depends exclusively of the situation, and not gender. If you’re having a placid evening in a bar, you’re having a beer. A hardcore party? Liquor. A traditional celebration (like romería)? Wine (and usually an specific one).

19. For Belgium Kastel Red, its a strong beer but which is very sweet, so women tend to like it, and sadly not notice their limits with it

20. Wine is neither feminine coded nor considered fancy here. We produce a ton of wine and you can get some great quality ones for cheap. It can be fancy, but that’s generally the more expensive bottles. Wine is usually a drink you have during a meal though, and going to a bar/café and just ordering a glass of wine isn’t that common I think. Not unless you go to a wine bar or something.

    Beer is a bit masculine coded, and a more common beverage to order at a bar/café. Usually people have it along with snacks such as peanuts or tremoços. It’s common to get a bottle or half-pint, whereas if you get a pint you might get a comment like “Are you trying to get drunk?”.

    Cider is actually pretty feminine coded here. It’s often seen as the drink for girls that don’t like beer. Same goes for some cocktails, like sangria. It’s kind of silly to make foods and drinks gender coded though imo.

21. Sweden isnt really in the ”beer belt” so I would say it isn’t as heavily gender coded. Wine is popular with both men and women with dinner, and from my own personal experience, its more common to drink wine to dinner than beer, if the setting of the meal is above ”diner”. IIRC wine is the most drunk alcohol here due to a history of the government wanting people to quit drinking for social order starting back in the late 1800s and early 1900s started by a religious revival movement. Eventually resulting in the idea that if people are gonna drink, let it be wine, since hard liqour and beer are more ”drunk/party” – coded, while wine is more seen as a proper drink where you might have a glass or two and then stop.

22. Men drink beer, women drink cocktails, everyone drinks wine and rakija. But that’s mostly older generation, younger people don’t discriminate. Alcohol is alcohol. My group of male friends mostly drink cocktails and female colleagues at work mostly drink beer.

23. Sweden is basically the same as other countries above the beer/wine line. There is an expectation that men drink beer and liquor, and women drink cider, wine or liquor. Still, if a man drinks wine or cider instead, nobody thinks it’s weird. I can’t speak for the rest of the country though. Feels like such norms are weaker in the cities and among students.

24. Not really. I live in one of the wine regions of my country(there are vineyards everywhere), literally everyone have grape vine in their garden and they would kick your ass if you call them feminine for drinking wine lol.

25. I think there is some of that. Especially for white wines. I also don’t think people let it affect them much these days, so it’s more of a perception than a fact. Probably just a remnant from days gone by. Personally I don’t prefer wine, but that’s because of the taste.

26. No, not really. Beer is more male, but wine is neutral. Unless you go for some fancy sparkling or something special.

    Gendered things are apperitives (before meal liquers and shots). There cherry and other more sweet, fruity are seen as girlish, while hard fruit brandies/spirits (grape, plum, herbs, figs) are men’s drinks.

27. Not really.

    Our historic drink is beer – my grandmother for sure has tried some, even though the last time we made beer at home was like ~20 years ago.

    There is some beer=guys and cider=girls, but it’s not so strong, as small breweries became super popular and everyone tries craft beer, your gender is not relevant. Drinking beer in bars etc is gender-neutral. But to buy a six-pack of cheap beer for yourself to drink at home – this is seen as a somewhat normal guy thing, but would be judged a lot if a girl did that.

    Wine is a somewhat new drink for us (though my great-grandpa made something port-like from berries). Wine used to be seen as a little bit more of a feminine drink like 20 years ago, but I think this attitude is gone in higher and middle class, though it probably still is around among lower social classes.

28. Sparkling wine is strongly female-coded, as are semi-sweet and semi-dry wines.

    Dry wine is a more fancy drink, not something that will be drunk when there’s a big loud party, but sharing a bottle of wine over a nice dinner would be seen as a pretty normal thing.

29. For Romania I would say that beer is more associated with men, but that’s just because women don’t drink that much beer. Wine however is consumed by everybody. There are many wine producing regions, there is a lot of homemade wine. In high school and university it was much more common for me to drink wine than beer. You had to buy beer, but there was always somebody that would bring wine that their grandfather/father/uncle/neighbor produced.

    Overall, when going out, it is more likely that a man will order beer and that a woman would order wine. However in other settings (weddings, birthday party and so on), there will probably be no difference in who is drinking wine.

    In the past I would say that wine used to be even more popular for men, 40 years ago it was very likely that in summer men would drink wine mixed with sparking water. Beer consumption has increased a lot since then.

30. Good question. I grew up in winemaking region, so homemade wine was main alcoholic drink for all people regardless of gender. I know that in other regions sometimes people use phrases like “get a wine for girls” but I never saw a man who would refuse to drink a wine or accuse another man to be “a girl” because of that. I think light stereotype is presented, but it’s not very common.

31. Alcohol is a bit gender coded.

    Beer and strong liqour are generally seen as manly drinks, while cider, wine and mixed booze are often concidered to be for women.

    Don’t really matter tho, we drink anything as long as it works.

32. I can only talk for my social enviroment. Normal Beer is mostly preferred by men here. Mixed stuff like Astra Rakete is not male or female coded. Guys and girls drink wine equally. Shots are preferred by men and women equally.

33. Wine is neutral. Beer may be a bit more male coded, since it makes you burp and women usually don’t like to do it in public. But they drink it anyway, because who cares really. Cocktails are rare, because they are pricey. Radler and cider are in the same category as beer, imo. Spirits like Scnhapps are like an appetizer in the countryside. Whiskey, vodka, gin, rum.. are all imported drinks that are not part of the culture here.

    Anyways, here is a traditional song about wine drinking performed by men: [link](https://youtu.be/EEW97iDBhG4). They are singing about how every drop of wine counts as one year of life, like the wine gives you life and happiness and joy.. this song is often sung in november around St. Martin’s, when the first wine that is made here is tasted in groups of friends, those who picked the grapes in october.

34. Not particularly, it’s just that girls often prefer wine and start switching from beer to wine at a younger age. Probably has to do with maturity at a younger age but also getting fat and handling the sheer volumes of beer physically, including the need to pee which isn’t as much an issue for men.

    So the typical student’s night get together the girls buy bottles of wine and the boys crates of beer. Around their thirties, lots of men switch to wine or other drinks often too.

35. When a good majority of people make their own wine, there’s no gender coded drink here. My dad drinks mainly wine, my mom fruit liquers. My boyfriend has a passion for cocktails, especially the stronger ones.

36. In my country (Poland) id say it is. Wine is more popular among women while beer among men. Vodka is enjoyed regardless gender, however it’s not very common at least in my group of friends. I am a big fan of beer and I used to drink only that from the alcoholic beverages, now I drink non alc since I quit alcohol. But yes, wine is more preferred by women and it is also a “date drink” to invite a girl over to your house, whereas you wouldn’t offer that to your mates, rather beer or some liquor

37. I don’t know if you count the UK in this but I guess beer is considered more for men but when I go to a pub i quite like drinking beer tbh (they have quite a lot of nice ones in my city) and my boyfriend drinks cider.

38. I think it’s more a country thing rather than gender or class. Wine producing countries seem to have a lot wider variety of people drinking wine and beer producers seem to have a lot mor e beer drinkers (regardless of gender).

39. No we have a strong wine culture in Austria with many vinyards that are strongly integrated in local culture. Wine drinking has no gender connotation. Typical drink for man around here is a white wine spritz in summer, pure wine white and red is unisex. Wine also ain’t a fancy or rich persons drink, as it is just part of local culture. You can get a 2 liter bottle of bad wine for less than the cost of 2l beer. But you can also get a bottle of good local wine (0,7l) for abt. 5 to 6 EUR.

    Beer is associated with mens drinking habits though, young women prefer mix drinks like Hugo or Aperol Spritz.

40. For teenagers yes, for adults not very much. Beer however is generally considered to be more masculine than feminine, but you’ll see many women drinking beer here and most people don’t really care. What’s interesting though is that kriek (cherry beer) is considered to be more feminine.

    The main difference in how people view wine and beer here is in status, wine is considered to be more classy than beer. I reckon it’s because grapes don’t grow very well here and only the elites could afford wine from warmer countries. Nowadays you can find very cheap wines and very expensive beers here but the difference in status still remains.

41. I think this depends on the region of Germany you are in. The region of Germany I am from is a wine-growing region. As such people here tend to drink more wine than beer on average. But wine in general isn’t gender-coded in Germany except for maybe Rosé wine. Beer, however, is, in my perception, consumed more by men than by women although it isn’t seen as masculine for a woman to be drinking beer.

42. Hmm, drinking culture in Romania. Essays could be written.

    I cannot speak for everyone of us, but there are indeed some generational and gendered divides.

    Wine is not ‘gendered’. Men and women drink it alike. Men tend to prefer beer because it’s cheaper per liter, so you can drink more for less money. Personally, I’m a guy and I would always pick a glass of wine over a beer.

    For more ‘special’ drinks, older generations, like 40-50 yo+ don’t have such a divide. Tuica, palinca, rakja, vodka (spirits), cherry brandy, blackberry brandy etc. they are enjoyed by everyone.

    On younger generations, it does seem like the ‘Hollywood’ culture had an impact on us. Girls do seem more eager to get cocktails (and probably cocks along), while men often go for simpler drinks, or very light mixes.