Life Lessons Learned in the Wine Industry
My time in wine sales has taught me a lot of things. It taught me what I was willing to do to make a sale and most importantly, what I was not willing to do just to meet my monthly sales goals.
There is a reason why I wore some form of pants every day on the job. Not just because I am incredibly comfy in jeans (let’s be honest, jeans win over dress pants at all times), but because creeps are out there and in abundance in wine shops and restaurants and the last thing I ever wanted to deal with was figuring out how to bend over my wine bag to grab a sample without giving some old guy a show.
One particular shop owner I will literally never forget. The amount of gross things he said on a regular basis, and in front of his wife no less, was as astounding to me then as it is now as I write this.
Things like, “if you wear a short skirt next time you’ll definitely get more business… and definitely from here…” followed by a classically skeevy wink. Like seriously, no thanks.
Of course this particular account was one that I needed to sell to, so I kept going back. And to be honest, while he made every effort to be thoroughly inappropriate, it never went any further than him just attempting to be a creepy dirtbag. Mostly I’d reply with things like “you know I really don’t need your business that much…” and lots of “umm well that was weird” statements.
For those of you who know me, you also know that I do not possess the gift of a poker face, so for sure my disgust with him was always plastered across my face for him to see just in case he feigned unable to understand the meaning behind my snarky retorts. But also I for sure would have slapped him right across the face and I would have absolutely relished doing so if he even attempted to put a hand on me.
But what worries me most, is not what could potentially have happened while I was there, but what might have happened when other young females went into his shop trying to sell him wine and were convinced that giving in to his bullshit was the only way to do it.
Like many of you, I recently read the NYTimes article about the Court of Master Sommeliers and the misogyny that abounds in that sphere. Accounts of which thoroughly did not surprise me. I mean, did you read the above short story?
As a friend (very accurately) described - a situation where controlling men are responsible for teaching women while everyone is getting drunk (or at least well-buzzed) is a recipe for disaster and a veritable HR nightmare.
It should be no surprise that the wine industry is classically a boys club. I’ve always loved the wine industry regardless and honestly in spite of that fact. You see, the females that make it in the wine industry for the long haul are some of the people I look up to the most.
The badass female brand managers who have to tell off whiny sales reps on a daily basis who cry that their allocation of exclusive wine isn’t enough; the veteran sales reps who visit account after account and stand tall in the face of predominantly men who think they know more about wine than they do on a regular basis and who raise their voice thinking that the too nice (read: nice girl) sales rep will back down; the supplier reps who flaunt their fun and flirty side (because why the hell not) but never ever dumb down anything for anyone they present their wines to and consistently dominate in whatever they put their minds to; the women who have been in the industry for years and absolutely crush it - and not because they wear short skirts, either.
These women, I’m convinced, are the ones who will change the industry for the better.
The wine industry as a whole has been facing a reckoning as of late. The market is oversaturated with new brands and trivial marketing gimmicks in the place of real honest-to-goodness great wines, distributors are consolidating to survive, stores are increasingly forced to either become private label retailers or accept dwindling margins on their top selling products. And all this started before 2020 even began; Coronavirus only sped up the process.
Never before has there been such a force of women in the wine industry as there is today. And women who importantly, are focused on supporting other women industry wide, even if that just means pushing wine made by female winemaking teams in front of buyers more often than not.
And never before has the industry been this ripe for change. Out with the old (men), in with the new (women)… isn’t that what they say?
