The Gendered Dynamics of the Artifying of Wine

The highly gendered nature of wine phenomena stretches back over the 8000 years that wine has been made from grapes. Although things have been changing over the recent decades, wine production, distribution, and consumption remain subject to multiple forms of division and inequality along gender lines. This includes processes whereby wine phenomena are subjected to artifying strategies for marketing purposes. When winemakers are presented as ‘artists’, and oenology presented as an artistic practice, deeply masculinist notions of artistic mastery and genius are usually invoked. The placing of the winemaker’s signature on bottle labelling underlines the masculinised creative act of winemaking. Bottle labelling may also be sexist in nature, with fetishized images of women’s bodies. We reflect upon these phenomena, pointing out the potential gender risks embedded in wine artifying pursuits, as well as instances of resistance and alternative ways of existing and acting in the world of wine.