"A man's approach to drinking is totally different from a woman's: Men think about color, what grapes were used, compare the taste and consider its place of origin. Women think about what kind of food a wine will go well with, where we might like to drink it, the kind of company it'd be good to drink with — whether it's a wine to drink with a lover or a friend."
I'm in a bar chatting with Mayumi Eguchi, aka Yoppawriter (drunken writer) — one of Japan's top alcohol writers — about what it's like to be a successful woman in the world of wine. (Eguchi's latest book, "Eating, Drinking and Getting Wasted in China," was published this September by Nikkei BP.)
More women than men drink wine in Japan: A survey by JapanGuide.com showed that 40 percent of Japanese women drink wine once a month compared with 31 percent of men. Does this reflect the numbers of women employed in the wine industry itself? According to Japan's sommelier association, out of the 12,431 of qualified sommeliers in this country, 6,014 are women: That's just over 48 percent.