WTF?!?!?!?! Wine Consumption Muscles Its Way Past Manly Beer

[The Straight Story]

Wine Consumption Muscles Its Way Past Manly Beer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
By Robin Abcarian Los Angeles Times

What could it mean? For the first time since the Gallup Poll began keeping track in 1992, more Americans have reported that their alcoholic beverage of choice is wine, not beer. Months after Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was caricatured as a Chardonnay-sipping Francophile, and somehow less American for it, the French national beverage seemingly has become our preferred swill.

According to Gallup, 39 percent of American drinkers said they drink wine most often, while only 36 percent said they drink beer most often. (The rest prefer liquor, and a small percentage said they like all three equally.) Technically, the pollsters said, the numbers put wine and beer into a statistical dead heat (when the margin of error is considered). Still, the trend inspires speculation: Is the slippery-floored college keg party going to be replaced by civilized gatherings with string quartets? Will American guys trade their beer and baggy board shorts for Petite Sirah and man bikinis? Is our country, in other words, on some ineffable road to effete?

``That wine drinking is more effete than beer drinking? No question,'' said Joseph Epstein, author of the best-selling ``Snobbery: The American Version.'' Epstein happened to be enjoying what he identified as ``a promiscuous but ultimately responsible Pinot'' when a reporter called him at home in Evanston, Ill. ``People who drink wine think of themselves as more cultivated, more educated, more sensitive. I think they are not. I just think they have more money.''

But wine is also more affordable and available than it used to be, said Jodie Morgan, executive director of the American Institute of Wine and Food in Napa, Calif.. ``We have more wine, and we have more good wine, and it's affordable.'' In particular, she cites retailers such as Costco and Trader Joe's for helping get quality wines to consumers inexpensively.

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=18&ID=234548&r=0

Having a beer now :)
Although dad and I do make wine (Rose wine, pumpkin, honey, et al) I still buy beer by the 12 pack and wine by the bottle...

[Droopy]

1. It's because I quit drinking

[The Straight Story]

2. damn slacker, we need you now! Serve your country, drink a beer!

or 2 or more :)

It's grapes versus hops, enlist now :)

[Droopy]

4. No can do

I'm on the straight and narrow now. I'm on the wagon. I can't drink because drinking leads to smoking. I can't smoke because smoking leads to gambling. I can't gamble because gambling leads to overeating. I can't overeat because the only women that will look at me then are women of the night and that leads to only God knows what. It's a visious cycle. I'll tip Diet Cokes with you any day though.

[The Straight Story]

6. How about diet mt dew :)

The coke thing just makes me shiver...

[Droopy]

9. You got it.

[Deja Q]

3. Boxed wine helps.

:rofl:

[henslee]

5. What? No way. Somebody get me a Pinot Grigio.

[Misunderestimator]

7. Three Words... Low Carb Diets

[AndyTiedye]

8. Cheap Wine is Better than Cheap Beer

I don't think it's an snobbish thing at all. Quite the opposite.
Mass-market American beer is really awful, but there is a lot of quite
drinkable cheap wine.

Microbrew beer is nice, but it's as expensive as wine.


Wine also contains more alcohol than beer, which is why winos are called....

[Allenberg]

10. Amen to that

besides, wine is just classier. :D

[Aristus]

11. How is wine-drinking effete?

A tough, dark, sour red is what kept the Roman Legions on the march for almost a thousand years! These were the toughest soldiers in history. They considered beer filthy and barbaric.

[Elidor]

15. Hell yes! Iron rations.

Keep them bastards marching.

[KamaAina]

12. Wine can be quite manly uner the right circumstances

for instance, last night, my 41st birthday. I did off almost an entire 4-liter jug of Carlo Rossi Blush (9.5%), on sale around the corner for $9.77. Ahhhhhhh....... (burp)

edit: Blush

[Droopy]

13. Damn. Are you alright? That's like drinking 20 beers.

[bliss_eternal]

14. This is interesting, and surprising.

Not being one that digs wine, I can never understand why anyone likes it or drinks it. But I can rhapsodize over the finer points of some beers for a good little while!

:bounce:

[XemaSab]

16. I don't like wine

the only people who like wine are frogs, and they're not real men. or women.