Real Men Drink Riesling

These days, top-end whites have become the bottle of choice for wine aficionados

- Jason Wilson

I grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs as an Eagles fan, part of that notorious hard scrabble, bleeding-green fan base whose behavior sometimes borders on hooliganism. While Eagles fanatics hate every other team’s fans, there was a special disdain for supporters of the California teams, such as the San Francisco 49ers. From a young age, I was keenly aware that laid-back 49ers fans were to be called “chardonnay sippers,” the word chardonnay spat like a curse.

The implication was clear: “Real men” do not drink white wine.

Of course, as I grew up and began to prefer wine to PBR and found myself more often at bars with extensive wine lists than at raucous tailgates, my appreciation of white wine grew dramatically. Times have changed, and plenty of guys now drink Riesling and albariño and, yes, chardonnay from places like Chablis or Montrachet. Yet there is a significant portion of men who are still resistant to white wines. I’ve had friends who work in finance suggest that it would be career suicide to even broach the idea of ordering a white wine at a business dinner.