Earlier this week Blenheim brewer Renaissance wrote on its Facebook page: "The grape harvest is just starting to kick off here in Marlborough. Lots of thirsty winemakers – it might be a cliche, but it is a well-known fact that it takes a lot of beer to make a good wine!"

That set me thinking ... cliches aside, beer is so much more than a quenching drink for thirsty winemakers. In fact I'd argue these days that New Zealand's best craft beers are the equal of this country's finest wines. Furthermore, in my experience, the kind of people who really understand and appreciate fine wine are also the most likely to be receptive to the bigger, more complex nature of craft beers.

Those same sentiments are echoed on the front page of Wine Country Beer (winecountrybeer.com), an American website I've recently discovered. "Wine enthusiasts appreciate complex layered flavours, and that is something craft beer has plenty of," says the website which describes itself as "your guide to finding great craft beer in California wine country".

GEOFF GRIGGS Matt Brynildson in front of barrels of fermenting Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale.

In recent weeks the site has published interviews with a couple of well-respected Californian craft brewers, Denise Jones and Matt Brynildson, who both work in breweries in the heart of Californian wine growing regions. By chance, while I was in the US last year, I caught up with them both and had the pleasure of sampling a few beers with them at their breweries. Fate then had it that I met them both again a week or so later in Chicago where we were all on the judging panel for the World Beer Cup.

I first encountered Denise when I called in to Moylan's Brewing Company in Novato on my way back from Santa Rosa, where I'd been visiting one of America's most famous winery breweries, Russian River.

The Moylan's brewpub had been strongly recommended to me by local beer writer Jay Brooks – whose excellent Brookston Beer Bulletin (brookstonbeerbulletin.com ) is one of my daily "must visit" beer news websites – and it proved well worth the stop. It's not difficult to find great craft beer in northern California, but believe me, Moylan's beers are exceptional. Thanks Jay!

Denise, who was the first female graduate of the American Brewers Guild, reckons the kind of tourists who are attracted to wine country are typically much more appreciative of the flavours found in craft beer than the average American. "I think they're more in tune to flavour and stylistic value," she says. "Their sophistication with wine has led them to having a sophisticated palate when it comes to beer as well."

In her interview with Wine Country Beer, Denise goes on to point out the similarities between wine and craft beer: "I can guarantee you that there are a lot of flavours that are very similar flavour compounds, esters and alcohols, and especially with some of the barrel-aged styles, there's the tannins. Then you have the fruit beers that have pectins and fruitier notes."

A couple of days after seeing Denise (and with a case of her beer in the boot of the car) I headed south from San Francisco to Paso Robles where I had an appointment with Matt, head brewer at Firestone Walker Brewing Company.

The region, which is home to over 170 wineries, is best-known as a producer of cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, rhone and Italian varietals, and chardonnay, but thanks to Firestone Walker it is also gaining a reputation for beer. At the start of my tour of the smart, modern brewery I remember Matt stressing the winemaking heritage of its owners. Co-founder Adam Firestone's family has been making wine commercially for nearly 40 years and even today he and his co-founder (and brother-in-law) David Walker, live on vineyard properties.

I'd be surprised if any other brewery explores the synergies between brewing and winemaking more than Firestone Walker. Indeed its most famous brew, Double Barrel Ale, is a pale ale which is partially fermented in new (American oak) wine barrels, "more like you would do a barrel-fermented chardonnay", explains Matt. "Short contact time, but a vigorous fermentation in the oak. Then we push it from the barrels into a stainless steel tank for cold stabilisation." After 20 to 30 fermentations the barrels are replaced and many end up being used in the brewery's barrel ageing projects.

On the subject of barrel-aged beers, in his interview with Wine Country Beer, Matt describes a special event which takes place at the brewery each year around grape harvest time: "We have five or six of our favourite Central Coast winemakers come in, and we pull lots from all the barrels that we have produced over the course of the year. We sit the winemakers down in a room together, and we let them create the blend for that year's anniversary beer.

"Using the winemakers to blend utilises one of winemakers' key strengths – blending – that's not normally found in beer making."

With New Zealand brewers like Moa, 8 Wired, Emerson's, Hallertau, Epic, Dux de Lux and several others dabbling in barrel ageing and blending, it seems just as Kiwis come to appreciate craft beer in the same way they enjoy fine wine, the techniques used by the people who make them are also getting ever closer. Cheers!