beer & wine

Write it again, Sam: Another book

The things you learn reading the Wine Enthusiast Online: Sommelier Marnie Old and Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione are writing a book called He Said Beer, She Said Wine. It’s due in the spring of 2008.

Vinnie Cilurzo & Sam CalagioneCalagione (pictured here in plaid; that’s Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing with him, not Old – and that’s beer in their glasses, not wine) and Old recently have been conducting a series of dinner competitions.

They each pick a beverage to go with a series of dishes from star chefs. Diners sample both a wine and a beer with each of the dishes, make a selection as to which choice was better, and turn in a ballot voting for their preference.

The Wine Enthusiast explains:

While this was the eighth time Sam and Marnie had gotten together for their “He Said Beer, She Said Wine” Event, the outcomes have always been quite similar. “It always seems to come down to the last match,” Marnie notes, “but our main goal is to get wine lovers to appreciate good beer and beer lovers to appreciate good wine.” With the vast assortment of Dogfish Head brews and fine wine selections chosen by Old, that did not seem to be too difficult of a task.

Dogfish Head sales were up 37% in 2006, but Calagione is still able to churn out books almost as quickly as beer. The first – Brewing up a Business – targeted entrepreneurs; the second – Extreme Brewing – homebrewers; and this one from the prestigious combination of Penguin and Dorling Kinderlsey may reach the widest audience yet.

Setting a wine blogger straight

One of the categories here is Beer & Wine. That’s not Beer versus Wine.

Jennifer Jordan would seem to disagree. She has written a stupid, and offensive to many, piece titled “Climbing the Liquor Ladder: Going from Beer to Wine.” What’s amazing is how many beer drinkers joined the conversation (which is what blogs are about).

Jay Brooks as done more than just comment – taking her to task in a lengthy blog post.

Is she a genuine wine snob, mean-spirited, or simply taking a lead from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist who grabbed all kind of attention (and many links) by taking a poke at beer snobs?

I hope this isn’t a trend. Want to generate a little traffic for your newspaper site, blog, whatever? Write something offensive about people who drink beer, see your list of comments grow near 100.

The curious part is that if her goal is to motivate beer drinkers to “move up to wine” or to somehow educate them about the pleasures of drinking wine (and there are many) then her column wasn’t worth much. On the other hand, because so many beer drinkers added solid suggestions her post ended up adding a little beer education to the blogosphere.

Good job, folks.

Think we should invite her to the first beer blogging day?

Do you talk to your beer collection?

Do you feel this way about your beer?

The New York Times has a story today about Park B. Smith, one of the world’s great wine collectors. His cellar covers 8,000 square feet and holds more than 65,000 bottles (half of them magnums). It has a full kitchen, bath and living room.

This question at the top arises from this lovely paragraph:

“I’ve had a crummy week, I just come down here for a few hours and talk to my bottles,” Smith said, giving voice to the desires of frustrated wine lovers everywhere. Linda (his wife) said, “That’s all right, as long as they don’t start talking back to you.”

But of course they should.

Added an hour later: Why it’s great when newspaper reporters can blog. The story Eric Asimov could do about the cellar is limited by the constraints of print, even when print goes online. In his blog he writes about “the journey we had taken together” – lunch, the wines, mostly the conversation.

The next generation of drinkers

Missed this story for about a month: Young adults key to wine growth (and breweries are figuring that out).

The articles reports the surge in wine consumption by the so-called millennial generation – defined generally as teens to late 20s – is one of the key reasons the U.S. wine industry has experienced robust growth in recent years.

But one beverage analyst suggested the increase was not caused by the wine industry. Instead, it is the result of the beer industry’s failure to effectively market its products, said Kaumil Gajrawala, an analyst with UBS Investment Research.

Beer companies lost market share to wine and spirits largely because their advertising campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s were sophomoric and failed to deliver a message about the quality of their products, Gajrawala said.

To support his contention, Gajrawala played a compilation video of beer ads that showed bikini-clad women wrestling, overweight male sports fans in full-body paint, and men driving golf balls in ludicrously inappropriate places.

“A 23-year-old doesn’t want to identify with that,” he said.

Gajrawala then played newer campaigns by major beer companies like Coors and Budweiser, which he said are hipper and more likely to appeal to the millennials. The new ads are an indication brewers have learned the error of their ways, he said.

“Clearly, you can see the beer companies have changed their strategy in terms of how they are going after consumers,” he said.

That’s important for the wine industry because if the beer industry and its massive marketing clout does a better job of keeping young drinkers well into adulthood, wine may have a tougher time growing at the rates it has enjoyed, he said.

“The free ride for wine is probably over,” he said.

As most business stories, when this one refers to the beer industry that means the big breweries – the ones who could afford to broadcast stupid commercials. Those are the one now catching up not only with wineries but craft breweries who’ve been talking about the quality of their products all along.

Beer, wine profs go glass-to-glass

debateThe beer vs. wine debate goes to the university classroom. with Andrew Waterhouse, chair of the department of viticulture and enology at UC Davis, and Charles Bamforth, chair of the department of food science and technology, duking it out.

Waterhouse:

“Putting a bottle of wine in your shopping cart immediately makes you look smarter and healthier. It’s all about image. Who do you want to be seen with?”

Bamforth:

“Most people who drink beer are young men who eat sausages and watch ball games. Think of how healthy they would be if they just drank beer.”

Both the beer and wine schools at the California school have internationally reputations. Bamforth is the first Anheuser-Busch endowed professor of brewing science.

Senior art history major Laura Stotesber told the campus newspaper: “It was enjoyable, intelligent, witty and there was a well-balanced argument on both sides. I thought it was great to see these two industries come together in fun.”