Beer, where wine lives

I normally don't mention my in-store demonstrations, if only because they, while crucial to my business, are an EVERY weekend and often, mid-week thing. Simply put, I pour small samples of Clipper City beers for customers.

But quotidian they may be in their regularity, they are a crucial part of marketing our brand name. Craft breweries such as Clipper City have nowhere even remotely near the marketing and advertising budgets of the international, national, and regional brands.

I'll mention today's tasting at Balducci's in McLean Virginia if only because I was the sole beer vendor among many wine vendors recommending pairings for the Christmas table. Thank you to manager Genevelyn Steele and to her predecessor Paul Everitt who had originally planned the event. (Other stores throughout my territory have had me in under similar circumstances ... and I thank them as well!)

It's odd how many wine connoisseurs are ignorant of the simple elegance that beer can bring to the food table in addition to its more heralded insouciance. But today, some oenophiles were converted into beer appreciators!

And I saw several friends-in-beer, as if one beverage necessarily excluded the other (which of course, it should not). If only one, I'll mention Fred, who is not only a wine buff, but an enthusiast for good beer and a partisan for Clipper City.