Steps to Introduce Wine to the Beer Lover in Your Life

If you love wine, it can be frustrating that a loved one isn’t prepared to share that passion with you. Sometimes people can be set in their ways, thinking they are a beer drinker, which means there isn’t a wine out there to suit them. But they couldn’t be more wrong! There is a wine out there to match every taste; perhaps they just haven’t discovered it yet. This means even the most stubborn suds devotee can be coaxed over to drinking — and enjoying — some beautiful wines of the world.

The Safe Option

If your beer-loving friend isn’t keen to try wine because they know what they like and like what they know, then why not gift them a wine club membership? This present will allow them to regularly try a wide range of delicious wines hand-selected by experts. All the pressure is taken off the recipient because they don’t have to decide which wines to choose themselves. Further, wine club membership is an excellent way for newbies to try a wide range of wines and learn more about them. It’s a great entry point into the world of wine.

Find out more about why joining a wine club is a great idea on our blog.

The Lover of All Things Cold and Fizzy

Let’s face it, a cold beer on a hot day can be an extremely refreshing experience. We can understand why people wouldn’t want to give that up. However, wine can replicate that and perhaps even provide a better experience. Most types of sparkling wine are served completely chilled and get their carbonation from a secondary bottle fermentation process. They taste so delicious and offer so much refreshment because, unlike cold lagers, they contain very high levels of acidity. This acidity gives them a delightful crispness and full flavor that a chilled lager cannot hope to offer.

Sparkling wines of different types are made using different grapes worldwide. Expect biscuity, bready notes in vintage Champagnes that have spent time on the yeast. Look for vibrant citrus fruits and a beautiful dryness that a beer drinker will appreciate in Cava from Spain.

The Festive Beer Drinker

Some people love beers that offer a rich body and perhaps just a hint of fruity maltiness. Big-bodied stouts and porters are popular drinks during colder weather as they provide a bit of a mental hug to those that imbibe them. This particular set of beer lovers may be pleased to discover that grape wines can also offer those robust flavors and velvety mouthfeel.  Riper red wines from hotter climates, often with higher alcohol contents, tend to be the sorts of varietals that are full in body and contain flavor characteristics like chocolate and coffee. Wines like Argentinian Malbec or Chilean Carmenere would be an excellent place to start here. As well as these comforting notes, the balance of acidity and tannin in these lovely reds means that they will offer winter warming notes.

You could always take the winter warmer idea a stage further and pick a lighter, fruitier red wine that you then add orange juice and spices to and gently heat to create a mulled wine. Mulled wine is the ultimate festive indulgence and will easily replace any number of Christmas beers for even the most dedicated beer drinker!

Find out more about the language of wine and how it is described by clicking here.

The Juice Bomb

Current trends in beer see consumers lapping up tropical fruit-forward “juice bombs,” and of course, wine can also tempt drinkers away from this fold. Chenin Blanc, the star white grape of the South African wine industry but also grown historically in the Loire Valley region of France, is well known for being a grape that offers an array of tropical fruit notes. Think juicy pineapple and ginger. You can also find those big, bold, and rounded fruit flavors in Chardonnays that have been grown in hot climates. Choose wines that have spent some time barrel-aging to help replicate that rounded, full body that is also characteristic of these trendy beers.

Fruit fans who enjoy the banana notes found in European wheat beers may be pleased to know that the same flavor compounds that generate these tastes, the esters, are also active in wines that undergo a process called “carbonic maceration.” Here, whole bunches of grapes are fermented in a closed container. The compound is known as “isoamyl acetate” and can add banana or pear candy elements to wines like Beaujolais and also to wheat beers.

If you are a beer drinker, give Sweet Oaks wine a try and find something in our broad portfolio that will suit your tastes.