Red or white? Your preferred wine choice may reveal much about your personality

NEW YORK — The type of wine you enjoy may reveal a lot about the way you carry yourself. A survey of 2,000 Americans found stark differences in personality between people who prefer red wine and those who’d rather have a cold glass of white.

Red wine drinkers, for example, are more likely to be introverts who love to travel and enjoy early mornings. White wine connoisseurs are more likely to consider themselves extroverts and night owls, on the other hand.

The survey, sponsored by wine accessory-maker Coravin, also found that white wine drinkers tend to be perfectionists, like cats more than dogs, enjoy listening to jazz music, and are more likely to identify as curious and sarcastic individuals.

Red wine fanatics are more likely to be dog lovers and fans of punk music. They consider themselves adventurous, humble, and organized.

Interestingly, more white wine drinkers viewed themselves as wine aficionados, with 45% confident in their expertise versus 31% of their counterparts. Yet when tested on several tenets of the world of vino, such as how to hold a wine glass and the definition of tannins, red wine drinkers were more up to speed on etiquette and vocabulary than white wine drinkers. (On glass-holding, 73% of red drinkers did so correctly versus 65% for white; 53% red could define tannins, compared to 45% white; 64% of red drinkers knew how long it takes for wine to oxidize, versus 54% of white.)

Red lovers are also willing to spend up to $40 on a bottle, about $3 more than their peers.

Overall, the average survey respondent drinks four glasses of wine per week. The favorite place to drink was at overwhelmingly at home (72%). But 62% say they will often pass up on an after-work glass because they don’t want to open up a new bottle.

“Enjoying a glass of whatever wine someone is in the mood for, doesn’t need to be wasteful. There are more amazing wines available now, than ever before,” says Greg Lambrecht, Founder and Inventor of Coravin, in a statement. “Wine lovers should be able to enjoy the wine they love, in the amount they want, without thinking about when they are going to return to that bottle.”

All wine drinkers in the survey say they try to avoid wasting wine by finishing three bottles of wine a month on average to avoid them going to waste. But they also throw out two partially-full bottles that they feel have gone bad.

The study was conducted by OnePoll in May 2019.