Any pop-culture observer worth her weight in Chuck Klosterman books can identify the exact moment when wine geekery went mainstream: the 2004 Alexander Payne movie Sideways, with Paul Giamatti as the pinot noir-romanticizing, merlot-hating Miles. Craft beer might not have enjoyed its breakthrough moment yet — though Hollywood types are welcome to read my spec script, Hopheads, in which an upstart craft brewer (Ryan Reynolds?) matches wills and wits with a smoking-hot liquor distributor (Kate Hudson?) — but its growth has been swift and assured.
You can find the latest local evidence of both phenomena in Ferguson. Over the past year, the north-county municipality has welcomed a wine bar and a brewpub. Both are positive additions to Ferguson, the sort of ventures that often wind up in the city or the better-heeled areas of the county. Yet both also raise an interesting question: Is it enough merely to sate diners' increasing interest in wine and craft beer?
