8 May 2007
I think she was trying to be amusing. Didn't happen.
I just received the May 8 edition of Nat Decants, a free internet wine newsletter by Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer whose work I have admired for some time.

She's funny, informative and the author of Red, White and Drunk All Over, a well-reviewed tome on wines which was published last Fall.

This is her website.

I was intrigued by the subject line of the email this time--"Beer Vs. Wine."

Reading her opening--"Dear Jack, Here's a topic to start a pub brawl: is wine better than beer? You know my bias, but I had fun with this tongue-in-cheek topic recently. So bring on the beer advocates: provoking debate is the writer's job (when not drinking)."--I figured she was going to do something cutesy about the arguments between beer and wine folks.

Scrolling down to the piece itself, which was titled Story of the Week: Beer is What Ales Me, I remained under that illusion.

Then I read it.

And was appalled.

This thing is so ham-handed, so ill-informed, so juvenile, I was literally stunned.

See what you think:

The fact that wine is infinitely better than beer is obvious to those of us who drink it. But apparently, beer drinkers need this explained to them. (Did I mention that the health benefits of wine include cognitive ones?)

Beer is the fuel for hockey brawls, an inspiration for buxom-babe commercials, and a source of enduring flatulence. By contrast, wine partners with haute cuisine in fine restaurants, is served at tony gallery openings, and toasts special occasions from birthdays to marriages. Omar Khayyam's lyrical poem describes paradise as "a jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou"--no mention of a six-pack.

The knowledge of wine's superiority has finally made itself clear to most Americans: studies show that wine has now surpassed beer as the most frequently consumed tipple. Back in 1992, a Gallop poll found that 47 percent of drinkers usually drank beer and only 27 percent wine.

A similar poll in 2005 found that wine had nosed ahead of beer: 39 percent versus 36 percent. The future looks even brighter according the research company International Wine and Spirit Record. It predicts that America will become the largest wine-consuming country in the world by 2009. (France, the traditional leader, will fall to third place, with Italy hanging on at number two.)

The heart of this liquid matter is that wine doesn't just taste better than beer, but it also has a greater range of flavors. Oh sure, you can talk about your craft ales and your artisanal brews, but most beer is marketed like breakfast cereal--and it's made from essentially the same grains: barley or wheat.

Wine, though, can be made from thousands of grapes, blends, styles, and methods by dozens of countries divided into sub-regions and appellations. This results in aromas that range from wet violets to toasty oak, and evolve as the wine ages. Anyone caught swirling and sniffing their beer stein would be laughed out of a pub.

Worldwide, there are more than a million wineries, and most don't have even a 1 percent share of the U.S. market. The beer category is much more concentrated: the top ten light brands own more than 95 percent of the market.

Even the beer companies recognize the profit potential of wine as a more differentiated and faster growing product. In 2005, for example, Australian beer giant Foster's Brewing bought the wine group Southcorp and its brands, such as Beringer, Penfolds, and Wolf Blass.

Some people try to tell me that beer is the democratic drink of Everyman. To this I simply say, "Tosh, poppycock!" That's just reverse snobbery and a transparent attempt to bolster the image of a drink that doesn't measure up, just like the cooperation awards that they used to give everyone in kindergarten.

And while we're at it, let's explode that tired myth of the wine snob. This bow-tied breed now exists mostly in our imaginations, along with the crusty old sommelier. These days, you're more likely to be served by a twenty-something wine gal or dude. Wine's greater accessibility today is even reflected in its packaging, with Tetrapaks, screwcaps, and all those cute critter labels. Would you like a fluffy squirrel or a cuddly kangaroo?

There's a good reason why there are so many wine clubs, wine courses, wine country vacation planners, and wine writers: wine is bottled poetry; beer is a canned cliche´.