Nolamike wrote:[qu
Of course, the elephant in the room is West Coast wine. I don't think the UK has anything to answer it, and it's what gives it the nod for me.
Oh, and if we expanded it to include cocktails, it wouldn't be a contest - just about every significant cocktail, with the exception of the gin and tonic, originated in the US.
Although there are some fine Californian wines the winery as a whole is massively overrated by Americans; you make some truly appalling wine there which sells for vast amounts of money because Americans are impressed by highly alcoholic, jammy reds for some reason. They often taste more like fruit gums than proper wines - Zinfandels are the worst offenders here. Your Californian Cabs are a little bit more reliable but not fit to lick the boots of a decent Bordeaux, Merlots likewise.
French red wines, and even the better Australian, South African and Chilean ones, are usually far more complex than just legs and fruit.
In the UK you have to spend over $30 to get a Californian wine which starts to keep up with similarly priced wines from elsewhere.
The American wine industry is complacent because you will seemingly pay vast sums for inferior home grown wine.
And on behalf of the rest of the world I would like to thank you for making sure that most of that muck doesn't leave your own country, truly.
The UK has a very small but generally very good wine industry specialising in Champagne style wines from the chalk lands of the South which often win awards over champagnes, but as they are generally Chardonnay - Blancs de Blancs Champagnes they are very much not my cup of tea.
Gin and Tonic isn't a cocktail it is a long drink, cocktails do not contain mixers.
Prohibition USA was a fertile breeding ground for cocktails but many are much older, check out the cocktail list at the Hawksmoor Restaurant in London for lists of these older Cobblers and Dog's Noses.
The idea that American alcohol is worthy of mention in the same breath as British booze is, of course, not worth considering, it is ludicrous.
I was tempted by these US microbreweries but they seem to compete to turn out the most viciously over hopped beers that are too bitter to make any pretense at enjoying, Brew Dog in the UK do the same.
Fucking stupid idea.
Give me a nice malty best bitter any day of the week, or a roasted Mild.
Overhopped IPAs as some sort of macho ritual
You can keep them with your jammy wines
The only decent alcohol to come out of the US is Bourbon which is a poor man's Malt Whisky when it comes to complexity but makes for a nice change sometimes.
Standard Copehead anti US hyperbole 
