In a pretty “duh” moment that anyone could assess by going to a local wine watering hole, a survey recently revealed that most Americans drink wine raw and wild… without food. Just like our beer and cocktails. This excerpt from the Napa Valley Register, written by veteran wine writer Paul Franson, sheds more light on the situation:
“Taking their clue perhaps from Robert Mondavi and the European tradition, Napa Valley wineries and other high-end wine suppliers have long preached the gospel of wine with food, but a new survey of top wine drinkers confirms suspicions that the majority of wine is drunk without food.
Even though most wine promotion emphasizes wine’s affinity for food, the popularity of wines containing perceptible sugar implies that many people like to drink wine at other times, too.
Among the most popular wines in America are white zinfandel, off-dry chardonnay, slightly sweet pinot prigio and even sweetish red wines and the fastest-growing wines in America are muscats and rieslings, almost all containing perceptible residual sugar.
High-alcohol wines like many Napa cabernets and chardonnays can also seem sweet even if they don’t have significant levels of residual sugar left after fermentation, too.
While certainly compatible with some food, these wines are also suitable as aperitifs, after dinner and as alternatives to beer and cocktails for parties.
In spite of this seeming dichotomy between winery talk and consumer action, little research seems to have been done to investigate the situation. The new study of high-frequency wine drinkers by local Wine Options sheds some light on the situation.” READ MORE
