Ask the WC 39: Drinking less, affordable wine, cheap wine

This edition of Ask the WC: More about young people drinking less, plus affordable wine and cheap wine quality

Because the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. You can Ask the Wine Curmudgeon a wine-related question by clicking here.

Dear Wine Curmudgeon:
What’s all this about people, and especially young people, drinking less? I thought drinking was a rite of passage. Is that some more of those bad studies you’re always writing about?
Don’t believe the numbers

Dear Don’t:
The numbers seem to be true, and are consistent across a variety of studies and surveys – fewer of us say we drink, more of us say we want to drink less. I got a release this spring with these numbers: one-third of us want to drink less in 2023, almost half are interested in going to a sober bar, and about one-third have tried alcohol-free beer. Yes, it’s difficult to measure drinking, but – as the blog’s official numbers expert has told me more than once – consistency does seem to mean something,

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Hi, Wine Curmudgeon:
I keep seeing wines advertised as values at my package store that cost $30. What’s going on?
Looking for value

Dear Value:
More of the evils of premiumization, sadly. That’s pretty typical of of my emails – lots and lots of wines, from both PR types and retailers, touting wines that cost $30, $40, and even $50 as values. It’s so bad that one PR company pitched me a $30 booze-free wine – which means it’s $30 grape juice. Why would they think anyone would pay that?

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Oh cheap wine guru:
Do you ever get tired of tasting bad cheap wine? I would imagine you taste a lot of it.
Palate cleanser

Dear Palate:
Oh yes – and the more I do this, the more bad cheap wine I taste. Most of it is a tinge sweet, very alcoholic, and the reds all pretty much taste the same regardless of where they’re from or what the grapes are. The whites do vary depending on varietal, though the sugar is there more often than not. But not to worry – that’s why I’m here, so you don’t have to taste the junk.

More Ask the WC:
• Ask the WC 38: More about negative reviews, inflation, availability
• Ask the WC 37: Blog future, negative reviews, California rain
• Ask the WC 36: Restaurant wine, holiday wine, past vintages

Photo: “IMG_7272” by JodiWomack is licensed under CC BY 2.0.