Women and Wine: From Ritual to Research

 This episode of The Wine Lab explores the long and layered history of women in wine. We move through ancient cultures, literature, religious life, art, Champagne history, and modern wine science to look at the many ways women have influenced how wine is made, understood, and experienced. Some of these stories are well known, others are easier to miss, but together they reveal a much fuller picture of wine culture. It is a conversation about memory, knowledge, perception, and the people whose work has always been part of the story.

 Glossary

• Symposia — Formal drinking gatherings in ancient Greece where wine, conversation, poetry, and philosophy were central. These spaces were largely reserved for men. 
• Maenads — Female followers of Dionysus in Greek mythology, often associated with wine, ritual, ecstasy, and freedom from ordinary social order. 
• Libation — The ritual pouring of wine or another liquid as an offering to a god, spirit, or sacred purpose. 
• Hildegard of Bingen — Twelfth-century abbess, writer, composer, and natural thinker whose writings connected food, health, and balance. 
• Riddling rack — A device used in sparkling wine production to gradually turn bottles so yeast sediment collects in the neck before removal. 
• Brut — A dry style of sparkling wine, especially Champagne, containing far less residual sugar than the sweeter styles common in earlier centuries. 
• Wine Aroma Wheel — A sensory tool developed to help tasters identify and organize wine aroma descriptors in a systematic way. 
• Volatile compounds — Molecules that readily evaporate and contribute to the aromas we smell in wine. 
• Sensory science — The scientific study of perception, including aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and how people evaluate products like wine. 
• Viticulture and enology — Viticulture refers to grape growing; enology refers to winemaking and the science of wine. 
• Odor threshold — The lowest concentration of an aroma compound that can be detected by the human nose. 
• Lead winemaker — The primary person responsible for wine production decisions at a winery. 
• Pompeii frescoes — Wall paintings preserved in Pompeii that offer visual evidence of Roman daily life, including dining and drinking scenes. 
• The Bacchanal of the Andrians — A Renaissance painting by Titian depicting a festive mythological celebration centered on wine, music, and movement.