Posted an item yesterday, here and on Seattlest.com, on the subject of "wine versus beer." Lots of online response, including this email from St. Louis:
Good morning Ron,I read the same piece in Slate, then the follow-up Q&A with Field Maloney at the Wash Post's website. I loved your response post.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading the Q&A. Pay attention to the question from Cleveland.
Additionally, I think you may be interested to know that the premium Czech lager Pilsner Urquell--full disclosure, Pilsner Urquell is a client of mine--is stealing a page out of the wine marketer's playbook with scores, food pairings and tasting notes....all the domain of wine, until now.
Perhaps this push can be most-simply illustrated with the Pilsner Urquell neck hanger, so I've attached an image.
Take care, keep drinking and please let me know if you'd like to talk to a Pilsner Urquell brand rep or their very own internal beer sommelier. We've got a great story to tell!
Sean Hixson
Two other notes: check out Pilsner Urquell's cool food-pairing chart.
And take a look at Maggie Dutton's comment on my post (same topic) over at Seattlest.com:
Crap wines probably outnumber crap beers, as the crappiest beers are the most omnipresent. Wine's just scared. Because if beer was ever widely seen as a vibrant, layered, interesting beverage that pairs just as well if not better with food (cough, cough Belgium), wine's marketing strategy to Boomers would be screwed.
Or unscrewed, as the case may be, given the snooty wine industry's reluctance to embrace Stelvin (screwcap) closures.
Posted by Ronald Holden at June 1, 2007 9:08 AM