The Wine Girl's Tolerance

The other day my boss and I were tasting wines with one of our favorite distributors/importers. He started to tease us about not spitting out the wine, which we normally do. “What, have you lost all your spit buckets?” he said, then looked at me, adding, jokingly, “She has to run a cash register later.”

I was immediately embarrassed, because unlike other salesmen, this was a figure in the wine world I had been looking forward to meeting. I replied light-heartily, if not ironically, “I’m trying to build my tolerance,” a clear joke seeing as how there were only three samples of wine to try.

“Dear, the only way to build your tolerance is to gain thirty pounds, and grow four inches,” he said as we shared a laugh and the last sample.

Later as I worked the sales floor and operated the cash register with perfect clarity, I was not laughing. Over and over a defensive mantra ran through my head, “Though shall not judge someone’s ability to lift or imbibe a case of wine based on size or gender.” While there is truth to what he said, I was still angry about people’s assumptions of my strength to carry wine, or to carry on when spitting is not always an option.

Some customers, women more so than men, are surprised that when they ask for help to their car with a case, I follow them, rather than asking a male co-worker. “Oh, honey, I didn’t mean you, are you sure you can lift that?” they ask. Duh, it’s my job!

Little do both parties know that I practice both yoga and drinking wine in my free time, as do many young women that I know, so watch out. The next time your wine tasting party erupts into a betting arm wrestling competition, it may be wine girl takes all.