I suppose the retailers can be said to have shot themselves in the foot by causing deflation on most booze categories with their bogofs and deals. So the government has just decided to help itself to the money that customers were happy to pay in the past and also take plenty of extra to put prices up and therefore save us from ourselves.
I don’t really subscribe to the rather self-righteous wine trade view that wine isn’t the drink of choice for asbos and vandals, because alcohol is alcohol (and I’ve known some people who can get pretty antisocial after a few glasses of Dom Perignon…) but generally you don’t see out of control youngsters clasping bottles of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc outside night clubs. So we do feel that wine has been unfairly hurt in the general attack on drinking.
Let’s also not deny that alcohol has a positive role in social adhesion, because sharing drink together has been a bonding experience for man since before we could write the word “wine”. And a symposium was originally a Greek word for drinking party, specifically to meet, share and explore ideas. Yes, there will always be individuals who do things to excess, but that is probably more about other things in their lives, than availability of drink.
So in order to promote the view of wine as an inherent part of a civilised society we need to remind ourselves to savour. Perhaps if we teach our youngsters how to appreciate flavours they won’t want to drink alcopops anyway! So let’s drink quality not quantity, and I’ll promise not to offer you 2 for the price of 1, if you promise to come to one of my wine tasting lessons!
