Wine tasting used to be about the elites. It was a snobbish pursuit reserved for francophiles and self-important WASPs with money to burn. But not anymore. Today, thanks to the efforts of down-to-earth California winemakers in the mid-1970s, good wine is accessible, affordable, and fun for everyone. (If you're interested in a fictionalized account of the blind testing in France that put California wines on the map, check out the 2008 film, "Bottle Shock" on Netflix).
But it's not just the wine industry that has changed. There was a time when beer & liquor stores were dominated by mass-produced American lagers. You had your Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Busch, Natural, Michelob, and Keystone, and of course all of these came in low calorie "light" versions. But in the mid '90s things started to change. In 1995, 3-4 craft breweries were opening every week, leading to a total of 600 operating in the U.S. That rate doubled in 1996, and the number of breweries continues to increase. In 2017, more than 4,000 breweries are operating in the U.S. (Check out this fun interactive graph showing the growth and decline of U.S. breweries).
Today, you can walk into any store worth its salt and buy any number of beers. The "classic" domestics are still there, but so are innumerable others, from locally sourced brews only available in a single city, to internationally acclaimed imports. Microbreweries and craft tap rooms are found in every city, suburb and small town, and you can discover your personal preferences one bottle at a time at stores like Trader Joe's and World Market.
This blog exists as a place to explore your personal preferences and find out what others enjoy in the fine drinks that are available everywhere, and in everyone's price range.
But it's not just the wine industry that has changed. There was a time when beer & liquor stores were dominated by mass-produced American lagers. You had your Budweiser, Coors, Miller, Busch, Natural, Michelob, and Keystone, and of course all of these came in low calorie "light" versions. But in the mid '90s things started to change. In 1995, 3-4 craft breweries were opening every week, leading to a total of 600 operating in the U.S. That rate doubled in 1996, and the number of breweries continues to increase. In 2017, more than 4,000 breweries are operating in the U.S. (Check out this fun interactive graph showing the growth and decline of U.S. breweries).
Today, you can walk into any store worth its salt and buy any number of beers. The "classic" domestics are still there, but so are innumerable others, from locally sourced brews only available in a single city, to internationally acclaimed imports. Microbreweries and craft tap rooms are found in every city, suburb and small town, and you can discover your personal preferences one bottle at a time at stores like Trader Joe's and World Market.
This blog exists as a place to explore your personal preferences and find out what others enjoy in the fine drinks that are available everywhere, and in everyone's price range.