EMPOWERING WOMEN ONE BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE AT A TIME!

by Cynthia Coutu

I am Canadian and have lived in France for 31 years, more than half my life. I originally came to do a Masters’s in Art history at the Sorbonne. I was offered a job at the Canadian Embassy, then at the OECD (an international organization known for its comparable statistics). Neither job had anything to do with art history, but I wasn’t ready to go back home. I loved wine and cheese too much! The Internet was just starting back then. I taught myself how to code, and I managed their websites for the next 20 years, fast forward to a few days before my 50th birthday. I was informed that my position at the OECD was going to be cut. Leaving the OECD was a blessing, not even in disguise. I felt like a prisoner who had just been set free from a golden cage.

For the next chapter in my life story, I wanted to do something that made my heart sing. Wine was my passion. I knew a lot about wine, but I didn’t have a document to prove it. I signed up for the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) program to become a certified wine professional. The more I ventured into the professional wine world, the more I realized it was male-dominated. When I judged wine contests, trying to find another woman in the room sometimes felt like looking for Waldo. Ditto when I attended professional wine fairs. I started to seek out women wine professionals. One winemaker from Burgundy told me that men and women didn’t behave the same way during tastings. She explained that men tended to be more interested in technical information, like methods of vinification and percentage of grape varieties, and that they liked to use their knowledge as power. She laughed and confided that some men even liked to mansplain how she made her wines.

She also mentioned that women were either intimidated or bored by technical information. That gave me an idea. I wondered what would happen if I did women-only tastings?

While becoming a certified wine professional, I also taught an international MBA class at a university in Paris. During breaks, the young women in my class would pick my brain about life, work, and relationships. I realized they wanted to be mentored. I was also meeting a lot of older successful women who were sitting on mountains of knowledge and experience they wanted to share. They had been there, done that, seen the movie, and got the T-shirt. I connected all the dots and created Delectabulles, a champagne networking club for women so that women could connect while sipping a glass of bubbly. I also made the conscious decision only to use champagnes made by women. It was my small contribution to supporting women in a maledominated industry.

Learning about wine is a very humbling experience. The more you know, the more you realize there is to learn. It touches upon history, geography, geology, chemistry, legislation, culture, etc. I decided to specialize in champagne and other sparkling wines for many reasons. The main reason is that women played a critical role in the history of champagne. Mesdames Clicquot, Pommery, Laurent-Perrier, Henriot, Bollinger, for example, profoundly changed the way champagne was produced and marketed. Women continue to play an important role today. The CEO of Taittinger is a woman, the cellar master of Krug is a woman, and the list goes on (and available on my website homepage). I love telling stories about the fearless women behind the bottles. Did you know that Mme Clicquot invented the blended rosé method? Or that Mme Pommery invented brut champagne?

Shortly after creating Delectabulles, I realized that the women attending my events could tell me if they preferred champagne x or champagne y, but they didn’t know why. I decided to teach Champagne Masterclasses for Women. I wanted to give women the tools to understand better what they liked and why, which factors affect aromas, quality, and price. How to get the best bang for their buck was particularly important, considering that 70% of champagne is purchased by women. The women attending the classes confirmed they preferred a women-only learning environment. They felt “safe” asking questions. They also felt empowered, especially those who opened their first bottle by themselves.

At the end of my first year, Delectabulles was voted Best Wine Tasting in Paris by Expatriates Magazine. Since then, I have been chosen as Best Wine Experience in Paris by Travel and Hospitality Awards, Wine Expert of the Year by Luxury Travel Guide Global Awards Top 50 Wine Experiences in the World by The Wine Magazine. I suspect it is because a lot of women work in the travel and hospitality industries and women love to support other women. I know I do! I partner with female entrepreneurs for at least one monthly tasting event (e.g. Yoga and Champagne, Chocolate and Champagne, Shoes and Champagne, Cheese and Champagne). I also now take women on off-the-beaten-path day trips to champagne. And, of course, we only visit houses where women play a key role. Cheers to all the women who love champagne! And cheers to all the women who make it!

If you would like to get tips about champagne, learn about the women behind the bottles, attend my events, or become a club member, you can:

● Follow Delectabulles on Facebook (www.facebook.com/delectabulles) or Instagram (www.instagram.com/ delectabulles

● Sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of any page on https://www. delectabulles.com is empowering women one bottle of champagne at a time. She is a Canadian who has been living in Paris for 30 years, all the while exploring the places, people and cultures around wine and specifically the beautiful pairing of champagne and women. www.delectabulles.com