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WOMEN are more likely to buy wine based on the look of the label - but are better at knowing how to "smell" and taste it.
With increasing numbers of female students taking up wine-making and marketing courses, the tastebuds of young women are influencing the way many companies are creating new drinks.
In fact, women are literally changing the face of the industry.
When they start drinking wine, women choose sweeter and easier styles, says Xanadu/ Normans winemaker Natasha Mooney, whose company created the Next Generation label for this emerging market.
And it wasn't only the taste that was important in the development of the brand - the label and design of the bottle was just as vital.
"Females are firstly more label-driven (than men)," Mrs Mooney says. "They are much more perceptive of the total package."
Her company's assessment of female wine buyers is echoed by David Jones wine store manager Cate Lister, who with assistant Mary McCutcheon, is a rare duo in the wine retailing business dominated by men.
David Jones' wine customers are mainly women, often in the 30-45 age bracket, predominantly in business, and who buy wine to go with dinner they're cooking that night - but increasingly also as presents for friends and colleagues.
"They go for a label - the name rather than the variety," Mrs Lister says.
"They are looking for presentation, prestige and security. They are quite discerning and very receptive of the customer service and wine information we offer.
"Many male customers are less so, though younger men are better than older."
Women link wine with food more than men, not only when they're buying it, but also when they're smelling and tasting it according to Mrs Mooney.
"Women grow up doing a lot more cooking with all those smells and tastes around them," she says.
"When it comes to tasting and describing wine, it takes you back to all those raw ingredients and gives you a broader range of descriptors and sensations."
As a winemaker looking to describe her creations, Mrs Mooney recalls the smells and tastes of her past, from the memory of kitchens, bathrooms and gardens.
I think females are more in touch with those emotions in general, and more perceptive to aromas especially."
Her assessment is backed by scientific proof from a medical standard smell identification test devised by the University of Pennsylvania in the US, says Australian Wine Research Institute senior research chemist Leigh Francis.
Women generally score better across all age groups in the test, which is used mostly for clinical detection of diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
It's uncertain whether there are physiological or genetic and gender reasons for the better smell response, or if it's purely a behavioural matter, says Mr Francis. "It may be that women are more aware of their environment."
Australian Winemakers Federation chief Ian Sutton says wine is "a highly sensuous product, and women have a special sensitivity for flavours".