Who Says Men Don't Drink Wine?
Fermenting grapes turn into something sophisticated, stale notions of masculinity don't.
Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate, dudes will continue drinking Chardonnay. A polite middle finger to those who say whiskey is for the brooding, beer for guys, and wine is for women and the effete. That's what your uncle vacationing in the Nape Valley of India believes. Such last century nonsense. Oh, wait a minute! Didn't the Romans believe in pouring goblets to the brim before heading for the warfare?
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How have we landed up in 21st century, defending the most masculine men loving a Pinot Grigio, then? Let's dive into history... I am only kidding. It doesn't matter what made people believe wine is exclusive to women and effete. What matters now is that you don't need to carry those feudal notions of what is for men and what is for women. Certainly, Hemingway didn't bother debating it. He finished his Bourdeaux while writing stories that men still measure themselves against.
Nobody questioned Jay-Z for spitting rap over Petrus or Elon Musk, the DOGE head, for sipping Château d’Yquem. The internet didn't fumble once and handed them a whiskey sour. Yet, the lingering myth 'men don't drink wine' swirls on the internet every now and then. While you are free to think that a glass of malbec doesn't scream laddishness like a neat bourbon, to think that masculinity is monolithic is pathetic.
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Let James Bond drink his Vesper, Haruki Murakami his Japanese whiskey, and other men their chianti. No one needs to bother them by questioning their choice of poison. That is a relic most of us have outgrown. In fact, in the brave new world, the notion that wine is delicate and too pretentious has been discarded. Just take a look at the rise of vineyard tourism in India and the popularity of Indian wines.
The manly men who enjoy a good hike up the mountains also enjoy uncorking a good old bottle of red wine. There is no performative aspect to it. You do what you like, you drink what you like, like you love who you love. It's all about good taste.
To those then, that still crib about men doing skincare, men drinking wine, men reading poetry, men expressing their emotions and working on their mental health, quit it. Drinking wine isn't gendered.
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So, swirl your wine glasses to see the tears like a fine, sophisticated gentleman who enjoys his slow sips, and deliberate slurps.