Over the past couple of months I've had the pleasure of getting to view a very good movie, Bottleshock. This is a movie about the first great California wines coming of of the 1970s and one in particular that actually, in real life, won the first international blind wine tasting in Paris. This movie is not good because of its screenplay or even its very decent acting complemented by actors like Alan Rickman or Bill Pullman or the new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine. This movie is good because if you like wine going into this movie, you will be left after viewing it loving wine. And most likely thinking about the next possibility of a trip to California to see this incredible piece of land.
This movie got me thinking though. Why isn't wine as popular as beer or hard liquor. There are so many advantages of wine, red especially.
Number one: It's CHEAP! With the ever increasing number of vineyards and wineries going up around the country and the ideal climate existing for every type of grape, you don't have to spend more than 10-15 bucks to find very good wine. And I mean very good wine. Just the other day I had a Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot from Washington State. It was incredible. I am not particularly a merlot guy and still the flavors of the grape came through the wine with very subtle tannins to give me, a very novice wine drinker, an incredible pleasant outcome. The best part though. I payed Seven bucks for that wine. yeah. Drunk for seven bucks!
Number two: It tastes really good! And regardless of what your tastes are like, there is a wine out there for you. Some people really cannot stand the tannins in wine that give it it's astringent, bitter feel. I think that is why Franzia exists, even more so, Arbor Mist. These are wines that taste hardly different than juice. And while their alcohol contents are significantly less, most women find themselves as intoxicated as they want while drinking.
Number Three: Food tastes so much better with wine! and vice versa! Many wines like a pinot gris or noir almost seem to need food to enjoy them properly. There really isn't a whole lot that can top off a wonderful thanksgiving turkey dinner but trust me, add a nice pinot grigio and you may just be surprised.
Alright now I could go on all day discussing how much cheese adds to wine or what chocolate does to it or how awesomely lucid the drunk is compared to other alcohols but I feel the need to digress as my bias plays into this a lot. The downsides of wine are simple. The two main ones that come to mind for me personally are first, wine can leave you with a pretty wicked hangover. I do not experience this much as I am aware of how easy two bottles of wine can go down if you are not paying attention. But yes if you drink too much red wine, you will suffer a rather painful headache the next day most likely. The second obstacle to increased wine drinking is that its really hard to drink at a bar. Nobody goes out with there friends to the club and asks the bartender for five house cabs. Nobody sits down to watch a football game with there burger and chardonnay. Now don't get me wrong. Your bar conversations will be much more productive if you were drinking the house cab and that burger might just taste pretty good with the right wine. But its not something people are used to and certainly don't want to experiment with. I wouldn't expect you to.
But what I do expect from you is this. Next time you're at the liquor store take a stroll down the wine aisles and have a look at how affordable some of these wines are and if you give it a shot, most likely you will not be disappointed.
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