For many people outside of the Church, a large part of their social experience revolves around drinking. Drinking is completely built into their social structure—weddings, parties, wakes/funerals, birthdays, celebrations, relaxation, etc. This stretches back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Several of my non-LDS friends simply cannot understand how we can have any “fun” when drinking is not involved.

As you mentioned, there are entire lifestyles built around different types of alcohol consumption (i.e. wine, beer, whiskey, bourbon, etc.) My current company is in the gifting industry, and we sell a lot of items built around drinking lifestyles.

When I lived the Bay Area, the ultimate symbol of success was owning a weekend home in Napa Valley. For those people, every weekend was spent doing tastings at wineries. Even those who couldn’t afford a second home often had memberships at multiple wineries, and would make regular visits and would receive monthly cases of wine delivered to their homes. Many have taken wine appreciation classes, and I always get a kick out of watching them decant and smell the wines in their glasses before drinking it—so serious!

I’ve also known a lot of people who are really into beer, to the point that they really get into home brewing. A large part of their persona is built around being a “beer guy”. Whiskey and bourbon people are also similar in their personas.