The Torrid Affair Between Women and Wine in Hong Kong
The wine world is no longer a boys-only club, especially in Asia.
As you might know but will be loathe to admit, the wine world the world over is dominated by men and, unfortunately, Asia is no exception.
From experience, wine buyers are mostly of the male variety and I find it outrageous when the service women receive is automatically far inferior to that of men. There are many occasions where I have witnessed a salesperson passing off the shop’s latest promotion in an attempt to hurry a female customer or rudely eluding her questions, just to spend more time with male customers.
Furthermore, there is almost no chance of being taken seriously if a woman is to complain about a wine in a top restaurant. Even for Jeannie Cho Lee, Master of Wine, it was not a pleasant experience when she was dismissed by the sommelier of a Michelin-starred establishment as a ‘typical ignorant Asian woman’ and her request to have a bottle of corked wine be replaced, ignored. Instead of checking to see if the bottle of wine was corked, he declared that it was just the wine’s style, without even smelling the wine for cork taint.
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