February – the month that weaves a spell of romance, sparking a crazy need to feel love's warmth with our significant other. Is it the charm of the season, or simply the cosmic alignment of hearts? Christmas, a distant memory, left us with the aftermath of extravagant spending and January's hibernation, where the darkness outside made it almost impossible to venture out after work. But behold, February is here, the supposed depths of winter, and we realize that reconnecting with people is a wonderful thing.
This is the big week football lovers, commercial fans and foodies have been waiting for! Whether or not football is the real reason for watching the Super Bowl, it usually instigates a celebration of good party food and drink. Due to the ever-popular Clydesdales, singing frogs, and lovable dogs, the featured drink always seems to center around beer, even though the NFL is now promoting Barefoot Wine as the “Wine of the NFL.” Let us be honest, there could have been a better choice … and while that might be your choice to have at parties where the audience is unknown, now is the chance to sway your audience toward “other” wine, and show them that yes, it is possible to have wine AND football food!
The roots of the Fair Trade movement delve into the 1940s and 1950s, where the impetus came from religious groups and politically oriented NGOs. A pivotal moment arose with the establishment of Ten Thousand Villages, originally known as Self-Help Crafts, offering handmade goods from marginalized communities. By 1946 and 1949, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and SERRV International pioneered fair trade supply chains, primarily centered on handicrafts.
The featured wines this week include Zinfandels and Primitivos; a great example of New-World versus Old-World wine. You might be saying, “Wait. Are not they the same grape?” They were once considered the same grape, or perhaps siblings, and then some further testing and research suggested they may be different.
A Gallup survey taken back in July of 2021 revealed the average person’s alcoholic beverage preference in the US, as it is broken down by subgroups. Turns out, at a bar, men will choose beer (54 percent) over liquor (28 percent) or wine (15 percent). Women will choose wine (49 percent) over liquor (26 percent) or beer (23 percent). It further breaks it down in age groups. The 21- to 34-year-olds will choose beer, liquor, and then wine. The 35- to 54-year-olds will prefer beer, wine, and then liquor. But the 55 and older crowd will greatly choose wine first, beer, and then liquor. There are suggestions that education and household income may have contributing factors.
