Wine for women - with a lovely bouquet

Choosing a bottle of wine ... is it really that hard? Photograph: Juice Images/Getty Images/Cultura RF

Ladies, do you find choosing wine an awfully tricky business? So many different colours, so many pretty labels, that your head's in a spin? Is there anything that would make those baffling trips to the offy any easier? Look no further than a bottle of wine disguised as some perfume.
As Diageo, the retailer behind brands including Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Guinness, announces it is to fund Department of Health training for 10,000 midwives to help pregnant women reduce their alcohol intake, elsewhere in the drinks industry women are very much still the target market.




The Essentia Vitae perfume-inspired wine bottles Grappa distillery Mazzetti d'Altavilla's Essentia Vitae, recently launched in Germany and Italy, is a beverage designed to appeal to female consumers by evoking fine fragrances, packaged in strange, perfume-shaped bottles. There are three different "scents" available: No 4 Ruche (jasmine-scented), No 6 Malvasia (rose), and No 8 Moscato (violet).
The "feminisation" of alcohol has been going on for years, from the prancing fawns of Babycham in the 1950s through lurid-hued alcopops to today's handbag-sized bottles and cartons of wine.
Is perfume-themed vino taking it one patronising step too far? Not according to the marketing experts who have already applauded the venture. Earlier this month it was crowned innovation of the week by Product Launch Analytics, an arm of major business analyst Datamonitor.
PLA's director, Tom Vierhile said: "While perfume-inspired wine may be an acquired taste, Essentia Vitae goes further than most to connect to female consumers. Its perfume-like packaging should break through the crowded product assortments that can often confound shoppers."
Personally I can't think of anything more confusing than wandering down the booze aisle to discover a drink shaped like a bottle of Chanel. Nor anything I'd be less likely to want to buy.