OurGirl: a whine about wine

For one thing, wine consumption in this country has nearly doubled in the last decade, while beer sales have been pretty much stagnant, growing less than 1 percent since 2000. Even more galling, in 2005 a Gallup poll revealed that, for the first time ever, Americans preferred wine to beer. This was an astonishing development, akin to Americans jilting baseball for bocce.
—Beer in the Headlights, Slate Magazine

First of all, after a super hot day toiling in the newly established eastern vineyard this summer—i've come back to the farm house and my beverage of choice?

Widmer Hefeweizen
I drank my first in HOTlanta this past june. and it was wiltingly hot in atlanta. but the hefe? it was so refreshing. it was clean and so, so easy to drink. i love the bready-wheaty flavor. i love the cloudiness of the beer. why do people prefer products filtered? like apple juice or cider—ever get the real stuff? the flavors are so much more complex. from what i understand, the hefe is pretty trendy. and the lemon slice—websites galore bemoan the lemon slice. whatever. i'm one of the dorks drinking the cool kid's beer. in late fall/winter til st. pat's day, though, i drink guinness stout with my husband's family. that's the extent of my beer drinking.

wine.

wine is all about the place, the food you eat with it and the people you are with when you consume both the wine and food. at least that's my current theory. to wit: my third date with my husband was an impromptu trip to new orleans. yeh. jezebel. so we eat at the creole kitchen (circa 1995), a literal hole in the wall restaurant with the dining set out in their cozy courtyard. i had a blackened filet mignon, a total food heresy. my husband had a fish dish. we drank a nondescript beaujolais and i fell so hopelessly in love with my husband i still sleep in the same bed with him every night. that's the power of place, food, wine and the person you share it with. here is another story about a less romantic setting, better wine, and a total recommitment of love.

people will tell you different. some will actually taste wine and then spit it out (this happens at a wine tasting, not at a meal). personally, i find this disrespectful of the grape. however, i am a wine novice and worse, an unrepentant one. i suppose spitting is inevitable at tastings. at a certain point, you could get a bit loopy. The oldman's guide to outsmarting wine has been a great reference book for me, you should check out mark's site. he writes about wine in a totally accessible way. i also enjoy reading michael steinberger's wine column @ slate.com. oh, and i can't forget jancis robinson!

bon appetit!