I pitied the teetotaller more than ever in 2009. What a crummy year to have faced without a bracing beverage.
But let's not dwell on the past. Non-abstainers like us are by nature optimistic. We invented the wine cellar. We invented tannic Barolos and vintage ports that take 40 years to come around. There's faith in the future for you.
We also are fond of dispensing predictions and advice. So please pull up a barstool and gather 'round. I want to offer my forecast for next year. Herewith some predictions followed by a few additional scenes I'd like to see (but almost certainly won't).
The new malbec? Malbec!
I have heard some prognosticators declare carmenere to be the next malbec. Sorry. Chile's humble, sharp-edged red will not displace Argentina's star any time soon. For one thing, “carmenere” has too many syllables and is too hard to pronounce after a second glass. More importantly, the malbec party has only just started, and it's going global.
Look for other countries to fall in behind Argentina's lead, including Chile, California, Australia, Italy, even France, the grape's home turf.
“Good evening, my name is Billy Bob, your Applebee's sommelier.”
Family restaurants, the ones with free parking and name tags on waiters, are getting wise to our wine obsession. And they're learning there's more profit upside in a fancy wine list than an order of mozzarella sticks. It helps that some of these places are starting to feature better food, thanks in part to the trendsetting efforts of such chefs as Vancouver's Rob Feenie of Cactus Club Cafe and Ned Bell of Kelowna, B.C.'s Cabana Bar and Grille.
Make room for more flavour in your beer mug.
Seen the new Rickard's TV commercial? A guy walks into a bar and asks for a beer “with something to it.” The bartender pours a Rickard's while three patrons describe the beer in corny metaphor-speak. “It's the eye of the flavour storm,” one says. The company behind the ad? Molson Coors Canada, owner of the Rickard's brand. How about that, a light-beer king touting more flavour rather than less? Next thing you know, it'll be advising us to drink it warm for a satisfyingly bitter aftertaste.
Big Beer gets crafty.
Faced with growing competition from fashionable imports and richly flavoured microbrews, big brewers such as Molson Coors and Labatt will pursue that age-old beer-behemoth strategy: If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em. Two months ago, for example, Granville Island Brewing, a small Vancouver institution, was quietly bought by Molson through its Ontario craft-brewery arm, Creemore Springs. On the bright side, it could mean Granville beers will finally be exported – to Central and Eastern Canada.
Introducing the nanobrewery (because sometimes even micro can be too big).
You've heard of craft breweries (see previous item)? Watch for more pubs and restaurants to ferment and serve their own barley beverages. They're like the brew pubs of old but with better food and better-dressed patrons. It's all about offering an exclusive experience and generating higher profits.
Don't forget to leave room for drink-ssert.
It's a nightcap. It's a dessert. It's both! Bartenders will vie to be the new pastry chefs, churning out booze-spiked shakes such as crème-de-menthe “grasshoppers” and old classics such as the cream-based brandy Alexander. This is one of the several trends for 2010 predicted by Andrew Freeman & Co., a hospitality and restaurant consulting firm based in San Francisco. “Everything old is new again,” Mr. Freeman told me over the phone recently. “People are rediscovering things that were popular in the fifties and sixties.”
The new colour of wine: orange.
