It is often said that many Europeans, especially in countries like France, Italy and Spain, drink wine at dinner nearly all the time. It is their belief that wine is supposed to accompany food. This is an important component in creating "wine cultures" in such countries. Wine becomes a necessity as well as an everyday occurrence.
Yet in the U.S., it is often said that wine is primarily meant to be drank on its own. Despite numerous people drinking wine with dinner, it is far less an everyday occurrence. It is much less frequent. Thus, the U.S. has far less of a wine culture. Wine becomes something "special" rather than ordinary. Maybe this should change. Maybe we would benefit from a more European view of wine.
Before I go into more depth on the subject, let me start off with a simple poll.
The new poll question is: Which Drink Do You Most Often Have With Dinner? The possible answers include: Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Non-Alcoholic Drinks.
When the poll is finished, I will have more to say on the topic.
This might be kind of a biased poll, based on your audience, no?
ReplyDeleteI will firmly say "Wine."
When it's alcohol, it's wine (but that's only once or twice a week).
ReplyDeleteWe almost always drink our wine with food! Sometimes we'll have a bottle on it's own when we are sitting outside in the summer, but wine is mostly a food thing for us.
ReplyDeleteTough call. With dinner, we typically drink non-alcoholic drinks; however, when we want wine, we will almost always pair it with food. Beer and liquor is a rarity with dinner, reserved for before dinner or enjoying cocktails out with friends.
ReplyDeleteHi Erika:
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly not a scientific poll by any stretch but I think the results could be interesting anyways. And based on the few comments already, the results may not have be apparent.
Though the respondents so far may most often drink wine with food, wine with dinner is not a daily occurrence for all. So, even with wine-lovers in the U.S., wine is not always an everyday event.
Sonadora:
How often do you drink wine with dinner each week?
Gabriella:
How often do you drink wine with dinner each week?
Thanks to all for your comments.
On average, I'm going to throw out 3 times a week. Sometimes we'll do a tasting of several wines in the afternoon and then pair them later with food. Other times, we'll just pop open a bottle for the hell of it.
ReplyDeleteAround 5 nights on average, I'd say. We go through 5-7 bottles a week in our house.
ReplyDeletewith dinner, typically wine. I'd say around 2-3 times a week. But not too much lately. the only other setting I have wine is when I'm tasting to evaluate.
ReplyDelete