Direct shipping, cork, bad food pairings and sake gets bumped — tasting sized pours
Wine beats beer
How did wine become more popular than beer in America? It must be because we got klass. Not so, argues Field Maloney on Slate. We’ve got lifestyle. [Slate]
Corked, ’tis (almost)
The wine market for direct shipments in Illinois is about to become corked up. If passed, IL HB 429 will limit Illinois residents to receiving 12 cases of wine a year. You might think that a case a month would be reasonable. But the bill also would strip many out of state wineries and retailers from the right to ship to Illinois wine consumers. That is not reasonable. [SunTimes]
Corked? No ‘taint
Amorim, a cork producer facing a marketplace challenge from screwcap manufacturers, claims to have found a way to treat corks to bring spoilage, known as cork taint, down to below one percent. [IHT]
What’s all white and has a whiff of man?
Why, the editorial dept at Wine Spectator. Dr. Debs explores and admonishes. [GWU $20]
Pairings gone awry
In his office just off the tasting room at Food & Wine Tower, Ray Isle has recently explored disastrous food wine pairings. California chardonnay and smoked sable ended up “the pairing equivalent of hammering yourself on the side of a head with a mallet.” And he finally found a food that does NOT go with champagne: yuzu sorbet sprinkled with espelette chili powder. I’ll have to bear that in mind… [Tasting Room]
Ixnay sake?
Two sushi experts sayonara to the sake and sushi pairing: “it’s a fool’s pairing—the flavor of sake is too similar to rice to enrich the meal. Opt for beer or green tea—their bitterness acts as a palate cleanser.” What about champagne? [TONY]
On June 8th, 2007 at 10:58 am ,Jess Sand wrote:
Well, I have to take serious issue with the Slate article. I am a huge fan of both beer and wine (I don’t discriminate!) and I’m continually stunned by the misunderstnading and misinformation that is constantly pumped out by both sides.
To speak directly to the “wine is more popular than beer” point that you mention, that statement is so misleading as to be false. The 2005 poll cited by Slate was upended in 2006, when the numbers flipped and beer once again became “more popular” than wine.
But let’s be honest: stats and polls are awfully easy to manipulate. For example, that 2006 gallup poll declares that 41% of respondents prefer beer while 33% prefer wine. I don’t know the margin of error on a poll like that, but those numbers are pretty darn tight. And then there’s sales numbers. Overall beer sales remained flat, while overall wine sales increased. Craft beer sales, on the other hand, rose in the double digits for something like the 3rd year running. All of which tells me one thing: Americans like to drink, and they are finally waking up to flavor and quality. (Hard to believe, eh?)
The other beef I have with the Slate article is that it so denigrates beer as an “industrial” product. The fact is, beer and wine have a TON of qualities in common. I’ve written about these at my own blog, Bar Stories:
http://barstories.blogspot.com/2007/05/pastoral-nostalgia-or-blue-collar-chic.html
I’d love to know what you think. A lot of beer advocates don’t seem to mind being compared t the better qualities of wine, but I don’t see that love going both ways. I hope that can change…
—Jess
On June 8th, 2007 at 1:30 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Good points. When that poll came out, I thought it was cute but wondered about the value. Wine is growing and beer is flat, that’s the story. But just look at the sales figures. I wouldn’t be surprised if one beer brand easily eclipses all of wine…
On June 12th, 2007 at 4:39 pm ,Alex wrote:
“Wine beats beer” in America ~ Ha, same trend in Germany and well, we have some rather good beers, indeed.
Thanks
😉