What happened to the ritual of drinking wine?

It wasn’t that long ago when leaders of men would raise a glass of wine to celebrate the conquest of enemies, the reaping of the harvest, or the construction of cities. Men would acknowledge their accomplishments by toasting, laughing, and singing. They would eat heartily and drink wine liberally. Wine was the official drink of celebration.

Sometime in the last few hundred years, though, drinking wine (like many men) went soft. Now you have a generation of men in designer suits who fancy themselves connoisseurs of wine. They swirl, sniff, analyze, and wax poetically about top notes and tannins. Men went from celebrating good times with wine to celebrating the wine itself.

The Sledgehammer Man, in contrast, is a bit of a throwback. He has no interest in the rituals of wine idolatry. He reserves his words for a great toast, not a diatribe on the Bordeaux region. He drinks wine, never sips it. He demonstrates the virtues of men from a by-gone era – hard work, self-reliance, and chivalry – and he prizes the simple things in life: spending good times with close friends.

To accompany and enhance these good times, his drink of choice is Sledgehammer.