Wine vs. Beer

Great story on Slate.com today about the dominance of wine over beer in America. Must of it the author attributes to an easier and less class-based language about wine, along with the idyllic pastoral image of wine as opposed to the industrial image and mass-production of beer.

He doesn't mention, and I don't have the numbers to back this up but pretty sure I've seen them, that the sales of microbrews are way up while the overall sales of beer are flat. He does point to an example of Bistro 8, an upscale beer produced by Budweiser that was a total flop- and implies that quality beer just doesn't sell to the American public. These two things seem contradictory. I think people just don't believe in quality beer from Budweiser and maybe the company should not have branded it as such.

Maybe part of the problem isn't that beer is industrial and wine is agricultural, but that when you think of wine, all the brands seem small- even Gallo and Two-Buck Chuck. Beer, on the other hand, seems nearly monolithic: Your choices are Bud or Miller, a cheap variation thereof (Milwaukee's Best, Genesee Cream Ale), or a microbrew at twice the price. In comparison to beer, all wine seems snooty and hand-made and that's what's selling.

Maybe beer companies, many of which own a lot of smaller brands, should put their marketing push towards those smaller brands and brews and the overall industry would benefit from connoisseurship of the consumers like wine. Because when it comes time to grab a 12-pack for the tailgate party, you're still going to buy Bud.

On Writing (About Drinking)

Last night I was speaking with Duggan McDonnell of Cantina, where I was drinking for the third time before it officially opens on Thursday. It turns out that in addition to opening a culinary cocktail bar, Duggan is also getting his MFA in creative writing in his spare time. He was asking me about the world of booze writing, as it would make sense to combine his two passions.

Though I had no practical advice, what I should have said is, "Don't quit your night job." Writing is a terrible way to pay the rent, and even dive bar bartenders make twice the salary in half the time that I do. But it did stimulate some thinking: What are the ways that people write about cocktails and drinking?

• Recipe writing. Some people, many of them coming from the bartending world, write recipes and fill in the space around them with information. I do this for Frontiers Magazine, and Gary Regan does this in his column in the SF Chronicle.
• Technique writing. Shake or stir? Proper muddling, not-so simple syrups. There is more and more of this writing as people become interested in home mixology. Imbibe Magazine specializes in it, and many magazines have DIY advice as part of stories.
• History. People like Ted Haigh and Eric Felten of the Wall Street Journal will track every reference of a drink to find its origin, creator, and cultural popularity. This makes great bar conversation topics for the rest of us after they do all the hard work.
  
• Industry. Both the liquor industry and the service industry have trade publications following them and educating one another on what the competition is doing. Magazines like Bartender, Sante, and formerly Patterson's Beverage Journal cover these topics.
  
• Reviews. In the Web 2.0 world, bar reviews aren't as important as they once were, but the public still needs to know which bars are where and what they're like.
  
• Trends. A combination of industry news (three more organic vodkas launched) and reviews (three more bars serving flavored mojitos launched), trend writing is really my bread and butter.
  

Anything I missed?

Casho for Cabo

Sammy Hagar sold 80 percent interest in his Cabo Wabo tequila to Campari, which owns or is owned by Skyy Spirits out of SF (I've heard it either way), for $80 million.

I guess he wasn't exaggerating when he said he's made way more money in the liquor business than he ever did in rock and roll.