(VinePair) - There’s a lot of understandable indignation about the lack of women in the wine industry. Whether it’s the wine glass ceiling or just the sexism women in the wine industry regularly field, women still – in 2017 – have roadblocks to making wine their profession. But this isn’t just infuriating – it’s actually ironic. Because according to scientists, women are better at tasting wine than men.

Dr. Paul Breslin, a professor at the department of nutritional sciences at Rutgers University and a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, has worked for more than a decade studying gender differences in taste and odor between men and women.  Working primarily with fellow Monell researcher Pamela Dalton, Breslin tested women and men of different ages over several years to see if there was a measurable difference in how men and women smell. And what he found was astonishing.