The Female Palate: The WMWM Vision

Would it surprise you to know that the world of taste buds is shaped by biological differences between genders?

Scientifically speaking, women typically possess a greater number of taste buds than men, making them more inclined toward heightened taste perception.

These biological distinctions extend to taste preferences, with women often favouring sweeter flavours and displaying a proclivity for embracing the intricacies of complex tastes, while men tend to gravitate towards savoury and spicy notes. It is important to note that individual variations still play a significant role in shaping our unique palate experiences.

Recent scientific studies suggest women and men are predisposed to have slightly different experiences when tasting wine. While the research is preliminary, this will have very interesting implications for how we should think of wine tasting.

Before getting into these palate distinctions, we should understand why the wine palate is so important with connoisseurs. Heck, you might even be wondering what the word "palate" refers to. "Palate" simply means the group of sensory tissues in our mouth and nostrils that are largely responsible for how we perceive smell and taste.

Study authors highlighted that women appeared to have a keener sense of smell than their male counterparts. This led women to note greater distinctions between all of the wines offered. While women might not have liked the tastes of every wine on offer, they were better able to pick up on a wider array of flavours.

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre corroborated this finding by pointing out women usually tend to have an easier time picking up bitter notes compared with men. The scientists argue this might account for why some women prefer sweeter wines.

WMWM founder and sommelier, Kiron Barui, recognised these differences years ago when she entered the world of wine tasting and has since been working to procure a collection of wines specifically designed to tickle the slightly more sensitive and nuanced female palate.

So, why cater to the female palate? It is simple.

Kiron’s journey of discovery with alcohol started as most young Australians did: black sambuca and gin. This often led to nasty evenings of vomiting and next day headaches. Not quite the experience we are going for now days…

Next, she discovered and was drawn to the sophistication of wine. As most young palates, she was excited by the sweeter wines like passion pop and Lambrusco. Price wise and palate wise they were the perfect pairing for a young working girl on a budget.

Here was where it all started. Kiron would go on to study her WSET levels in wine and along the way learned that different methods of wine making, ones that involved more preservatives, skin contact and aging, often tended to make her and her female friends unwell. Determined to work out why and to curate a collection of wines that would enhance the female wine drinking experience, the WMWM vision was born.