Food & Drink: A Watch on the Wine

FOOD & DRINK

Not long ago, the average American thought that people who drank wine with their meals were either oddballs or foreigners—or both. The wine drinker, in short, was assumed to be either a recent immigrant who had not yet adjusted to the American way of life or a rich sybarite with exotic tastes. Exotic, because wine naturally meant French wine.

But in the last decade, more and more ordinary Americans have been discovering that a taste for wine is both respectable and rewarding. Where once a bottle of wine was reserved for...