150: Bottle of the Sexist: Marketing Wine to Women with Felicity Carter

What do fortune-telling and wine writing have in common? How does wine culture change when women are part of its founding? Should you believe the health claims about clean wines? Are they really better for you? What are the fairy tales we tell about wine? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with wine writer, Felicity Carter who is the Executive Editor at Pix.wine, a global wine discovery platform based in California. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.   Watch Party Join me for the debut Watch Party of the video of this conversation that I’ll be live-streaming for the very first time on Zoom on Wednesday, November 3rd at 7 pm eastern. You can save your spot for free right here. I’ll be jumping into the comments as we watch it together so that I can answer your questions in real-time. I want to hear from you! What’s your opinion of what we’re discussing? What takeaways or tips do you love most from this chat? What questions do you have that we didn’t answer?   Highlights How did Felicity’s journey from fortune teller to skeptic show up in her wine career? What was the most important lesson Felicity learned in her time as an astrologer? How can Pix help to simplify your wine buying process? What makes Pix different from other review sites? Why was it important to Felicity for Pix and The Drop to be completely independent? Which experience first gave Felicity confidence in her ability as a wine writer? How did Felicity get exposed by Gordon Ramsay? What gruelling assignment did Felicity have to complete for a food magazine? What’s Felicity’s involvement in the German Wine Queen competition? When did Felicity first feel the power of the press? What was it like being editor-in-chief of the prestigious Meiningers magazine for over 12 years? Why are wines marketed as gluten-free problematic? Are there health benefits offered by dry-farmed wines? Should you be concerned about the “goopification” of wine? Why are false advertising and fear-mongering in wine marketing so dangerous? What’s the problem with the gendered marketing of wine? What can wine retailers learn from the adult toy industry? Which terms, tropes and tales do we overuse as wine writers? Why is Felicity excited about audio for the future of wine communication? Is Amazon going to become a big player in the wine world? Why do so few women own and operate wineries? Why doesn’t the fast-food metaphor work for wine? What’s Felicity’s unpopular opinion about sulphur? Which grown-up wine would Felicity pair with her favourite dish from childhood? What was the weirdest wine pairing Felicity had? Who would Felicity love to share a bottle of wine with? If Felicity had a billboard in downtown San Francisco, what would it say? Which wine does Felicity feel a personal connection with? Why would Felicity want bad wine to be served at her funeral?   Key Takeaways The wine industry is long overdue for a shake-up in how we market wine to women, from treating them like cash cows who only enjoy cheap, mommy juice to a diverse group of people who have a range of tastes. Wine culture develops in a profoundly different way when women are part of its founding. My hope is that we can plant those seeds in other pockets of the industry, whether that’s new types of wines or ways to appreciate it. Felicity hits hard against the marketers who make spurious health claims about clean wines. She’s right that if the wine industry itself doesn’t clean up its act, the government will do it for them, the way they did with big tobacco. It’s a clarion call not to be ignored.   About Felicity Carter Felicity Carter is the Executive Editor at Pix.wine, a global wine discovery platform. She was previously Editor-in-Chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International magazine. Her work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Guardian and Decanter, among others. Felicity has a delightfully wide range, having also written about astrology, oil and gas, the funeral industry, and skateboarding for boys. As a romance novel editor, her main editorial note was "this is not physically possible." Before becoming a journalist, Felicity worked as an advertising copywriter in blue-chip agencies, doing creative work for clients such as Qantas, Adobe, MasterCard and more.     To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/150.