Here’s something that I totally did not see coming when we launched Enolytics a few years ago.

Women over-index as users of our ecommerce system.

Women have raised their hands to be early adopters of Enolytics. Women sign up and show up for our Master Classes. Women offer testaments to the usefulness of the system in their day-to-day lives at wineries across the country.

Men do all of these things too, without a doubt. But, at this moment in our company history, the number of women users is higher than the number of men.

I gotta say, I’m loving that. It’s about upskilling women in roles where they (we) have been previously underrepresented, and it’s about filling seats at decision-making tables.

How does it actually work, in practice?

Let me share some words from the women themselves, who we interviewed a few weeks ago when putting together this video for the DTC Symposium. When we listen to the footage, here are some consistent themes.

• Involving Others. “It’s easy for my team to pull different reports and talk about the growth of our wine clubs,” said Janie Heuck Brooks of Brooks Wine. “It’s so easy for them to prepare their presentations. They’ve actually enjoyed it.”

• Thinking Bigger. “If you pay attention and you’re thinking bigger, you can really use the [technology] to make decisions and make money, which we’re all in the business of doing,” said Melissa Schulte of Black Ankle Vineyards.

• Stronger Performance. “I feel that I’m able to do my job better and more efficiently now,” said Amanda Jurgens of Scott Harvey Wines. “Literally anything I want to know, I can get it now. And it doesn’t take hours to decipher reports like it used to.”

• Upskilling. “All the information that I needed was presented to me immediately, easily,” said Meghan Raynes of Early Mountain Vineyards. “I didn’t have to dig through a ton of different things to figure it out, especially things that were new to me. So the technology was great to use right out of the gate when I started this job.”

This is all music to my ears. In our own way, we’re helping to move the needle for women, for business, and for wine.

Please also check out this day-long program on that theme, on Tuesday next week which is International Women’s Day. It’s free to register. Note in particular that Valerie Logan of The Data Lodge, who inspired our partnership to introduce data literacy to wine and spirits, is giving an Executive Talk at 10:30 am EST.

I know I’ll be tuning in.

Thank you, as always, for reading and for being interested in this work —

Cathy