Those for whom every day is Valentine’s Day may be interested in a new range of wines aimed at women developed by a French wine merchant. To capture a slice of the lucrative female wine market, wineSight has selected nearly 30 French wines under the label Sublimelle, ‘parce que la femme est Sublimelle’. It boasts ‘no need for images of lingerie’, so the fact that a French lingerie label of the same name adorns such fine et sexy brands as Forplay (sic) and Leg Avenue, is presumably a coincidence. Selected by a man, Frédéric Auriol, the range of ‘silky and harmonious wines’ available online at www.chateauselect.co.uk, is available for a variety of occasions, ‘whether it is a girls’ night out, individual tasting pleasure, a romantic dinner, after love making, or a business success’. Women like suppleness, wineSight say, men prefer a good body. No, really.

It was a man who made the Portuguese red I came across at a tasting at the country’s Embassy a couple of weeks ago with a garish purple label emblazoned simply: Sexy. Yet New York’s Babeland, which held an Erotic Wine Tasting Soirée at which winelovers sipped Foreplay Chardonnay (something about foreplay it seems) and Seduction Cabernet, is owned exclusively by women. Babeland also runs a ladies-only ‘kinky wine tasting party’ at which, while enjoying a selection of red, white and sparkling wines, participants ‘learn how to perform a striptease, lap dance, and walk with a new sexy strut’. Examples of the wine industry targeting women are numerous, from the Sofia Mini Blanc de Blanc fizz in a can named after Sophia Niebaum-Coppola, to the modish range of girly champagnes such as Pommery Pop, recommended drunk with ice.

Recent launches of Black Tower fizz in a can and Marks & Spencer’s Pink Port for ‘ladies’ are the latest such manifestations of vive la différence. M&S thinks that its brand new bright pink port, £7.99, ‘will be so successful that is set to ‘transform the port category’. A heady claim seeing as a tasting panel including two Masters of Wine called it ‘more like vodka and cranberry juice’. Give me a tawny such as Warre’s Otima 10-Year Old Tawny every time. ‘I suspect they're trying to jump on the rosé bandwagon’, said one of the tasters, putting his finger on the R spot. Rosé, fizz, pinot grigio and chardonnay are all hugely popular with women, not least because of the big budgets thrown at colour, fragrance, lower alcohol, sweetness, bubbles and fancy bottle shapes. Yet while there is much evidence that women are better wine tasters than men, are they really on Venus and men on Mars when it comes to wine?

According to a report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 13 per cent of men drink almost every day compared to seven per cent of women. The man’s most common drinking companions are friends, then their spouse or partner. It’s vice versa for women, the majority preferring to drink with their loved one. If women drink wine mainly with their partners, you might think they’d be looking for the same sort of wine that both they and their partner can enjoy together. Besides, like describing a wine as prestige or premium, fancy attempts at marketing so often fall way short of expectations.

‘When choosing a boyfriend, the plainest wrapper has the best inside’, a female friend confides. With snazzy labels, but boring drinking in her opinion, she cites 2006 Xerolithia White, 2007 Soaring Kite Chardonnay, Barramundi Semillon Chardonnay and Cycles Gladiator Pinot Grigio. Three wines, all in the simplest packaging, that she adores, and I’m with her on these: the lime citrusy 2007 Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling, £9.99, Oddbins, australianwinesonline.co.uk, the toasty 2004 Rutherford Ranch Napa Valley Chardonnay, around £11.75, Arthur Rackhams, Guildford, Avery’s, Bristol, Thomas Panton Wines, Tetbury, Bayley & Sage, Wimbledon, and powerful, apricot-laden 2005 / 2006 Duncan McGillivray Longview 'Beau Sea' Viognier, £9.99, Oddbins, Majestic, If what my friend says is true, I suspect that what most women want from a wine, above all, is not that dissimilar to what men want: flavour, quality and value for money. As long as it’s pink, sweet and bubbly, of course.

Something For the Weekend 23 February 2007

Under a Fiver

2006 Domaine Caillaubert Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne, buy 2 = £4.99, list price £6.24, Majestic

The French country wine revival of Armagnac’s Côtes de Gascogne continues with blends such as this zippy and refreshingly juicy blend of the white Graves grapes sauvignon blanc and sémillon in a zesty apple and pear-like dry white with citrusy acidity.

Under a Tenner

2006 Steenberg Semillon, £9.99, Waitrose

Beyond the Graves only two places in the world are capable of reproducing the style with the requisite freshness and verve: Margaret River and, as in this case, the Atlantic-cooled Constantia in the Cape, where the classic scent of elderflower mingles with a fine gooseberry fool richness of flavour.

Splash Out

2004 Rafael Cambra, Minimum, Valencia, around £21.50, The Sampler, Upper St., Islington, 0207 226 9500, www.thesampler.co.uk, The Vineking, Reigate & Weybridge, 0870 850 8997 www.thevineking.co.uk.

Minimum by name, maximum in impact, this is new wave Spain in full cry, a well-crafted blend of southern Spain’s monastrell (mourvèdre in France) and St.Emilion’s cabernet franc, producing a dark red rich redolent of mulberries with a firm backbone of tannin and cleansing damsony bite of freshness.