Winebits 703: Underage drinking, restaurant wine, “cult wines”
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
This week’s wine news: Underage drinkers prefer beer and spirits to wine. Plus, getting consumers back to restaurants may not be easy and a lawsuit about “cult” wines.
• Finishing third: Underaged drinkers much prefer beer and spirits to wine, according to a in the Journal of Alcohol and Drugs (via Wine Industry Insight). This tends to confirm something many of us have suspected over the years, that teenagers who drink illegally find it easier to get beer and whiskey. If nothing else, those two are much less expensive than wine. The study reports that more than 60 percent of those aged 12-20 preferred beer, about one-third chose spirits, and just 5 percent wanted wine. Interestingly, the study reports that the world’s drinks companies get about 10 percent of their income from underage drinking.
• Luring us back: A British study says it’s not going to be easy to lure consumers – and especially “the switched on, digitally driven, happy at home consumer” – back to restaurants as the pandemic ends. The report, detailed in a British trade magazine, says it will be “much harder” to entice people to go out at all, since we’ve become so much more comfortable at home. It cites the growth in sales of home meal kits and the increase in subscriptions services like Netflix and video gaming. Yes, the study not about U.S. consumers, but the parallels are there – and the same old, same old restaurant wine service may not cut it any more.
• Cult wine lawsuit: This story, from Wine-Searcher.com, features two of the WC’s favorite bits of wine foolishness: Lawsuits and wine snobs. A company that says it owns the phrase “cult wine” is suing another company that says it owns the phrase. The dispute is apparently over a $15 wine, which every wine snob will tell you is in no way a cult wine. True cult wines, like this one and this one, cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars – if not thousands. The story is quite complicated; so complicated, in fact, that it’s not clear if either company can actually win.