in my early years in the culture around me, the message was: beer drinking is low-class, for coarse men. sophisticated men drink cognac, whiskey...blahblah.
women will have wine.
beer-drinking women were suspect. must be sluts.
such various stigma attached to different substances and who uses them.
i started with beer and later switched to wine in an attempt to switch from a "problem" to a "sophisticated" drinker.