Who is drinking wine today? Answer: the butcher, the baker, the wife-y meal maker…the rich man, the poor man, the beggar man…and--curses!--the thief. Yes, the thief who stole two of my Bordeaux First Growths at a wine seminar I conducted recently.
Increasing numbers of Americans are turning to wine, although statistics about average per capita wine consumption throughout the world indicate we are far behind Italy, France and Spain. We consume about 10 percent the amount of wine of our Italian counterparts.
Wine quaffers, however, across the ocean didn’t have Carrie Nation and her zealous band of little hatchet wielders to contend with. This is what happened:
After she and her fire snorting dragons busted up more than a few life-sustaining watering holes around the country, U.S. Representative Andy Volstead got legislation passed that sent happy bibbers into a desert of parched misery. From 1919 to 1933, no wine, beer or spirits flowed—except what came from bootleggers. In fact, the spirits of those who lived the good life were down, down, down!
Grape growers tore out their vines along with their hair in despair. Wine makers forsook their craft and turned to growing oranges or mixing malteds or making Fords. A pall of gloom settled over the land of the free and the home of the brave. But in Europe, wine lovers merrily, merrily, merrily raised glass to lip while we thirsted.
After 1933, we were naďve innocents as we tried to produce world class wines. Very few vintners were successful and, as wine drinkers of consequence, we couldn’t be compared to our friends from across the briny sea.
In the ‘50s, winemaking improved in this country, and an awareness that translated into, "Hey, this wine stuff isn’t all that bad," began to pervade the land. Savants like Alexis Lichine and Frank Schoonmaker, and a small squad of others, wrote extensively and traveled around the country extolling the enjoyment of wine at the dinner table.
In the ‘60s—well, you know what happened. The hippies, the yippies and a melange of similarly chaos-prone individuals discovered Cold Duck…and Thunderbird (the wine, not the car)…Ripple…Annie Swimming Nudely in the Green Springs…Dan’l Boone’s Flintlock Apple wine. And away we went!
In the late ‘60s, our zeal to purchase Lancers, a good-humored, benevolent, innocuous rose Portugal was so overwhelming that the Portuguese likened it to Columbus’ discovering the New Land! You could put a bottle of Lafite Rothschild on the shelf next to the rose, and the rose would fly.
It didn’t take long for the wine boom to begin. Wineries proliferated along the West Coast. And as sure as night follows day, we graduated from the sweet and simple, to the off-dry and somewhat complex, to the dry and complex wine.
By the mid-70s, we emerged from a relatively ignorant non-wine drinking society to a rapidly increasing savvy nation of wine aficionados. Wine tasting clubs bloomed across the nation. I organized the Worcester Wine Society that grew to some 250 members.
Dr. Bob Ouellette founded the Chevaliers du Tastevin New England chapter, and with Dr. Paul Martin, started the Les Compagnons des Bons Vins group.
The Castle Restaurant’s Nicas family organized the International Wine & Food Society and the Chaine des Rotisseurs chapters.
Yes, Worcesterites were in the forefront, leading a parade of wine lovers. Journalists and publishers, albeit with much purple prose and startling inaccuracies, promulgated the vinous message to eager eyes and thirsty lips.
The past 20 years have witnessed a staggering amount of wine consumption here, initially by relatively few dedicated wine lovers. In the ‘90s, the population of devoted oenophiles increased tremendously, thousands becoming connoisseurs and experts. Wine shops held weekly free tastings on their premises; wine education courses flourished like Dr. Bob Ouellette’s Assumption College night appreciation classes. Sit down and walk around tastings and wine dinners were prevalent everywhere.
Today, person-for-person, we consume MORE wine than similarly dedicated European wine lovers. When our base of wine enthusiasts becomes broader-- watch out, Europe, we’ll catch you!
So who drinks wine? People from all walks of life, not the elitist anymore. Even the two-fisted macho barroom beer drinker is enjoying wine. The bourbon and Scotch country clubbers are opting for fine wine. College wine societies are involved in wine tasting competitions with students from other institutions; recently a wine tasting team from England defeated an American team in Chicago. Who knows? Perhaps one day wine may be included in Olympic competition.
Wine pick: King Estate’s Lorane Valley Chardonnay 1997, $10-$11. Nose: orange blossom, citrus, green apple and dried mint with nuances of oak spice and vanilla. These aromas transfer to palate with added complexity from peach, apple and lemon; balanced, viscous, clean crisp finish. Seek it out!