Winecast 64: Paul Tincknell and wine’s failure to address the neo-Prohibitionists

Wine marketing guru Paul Tincknell returns for another podcast, in which we rant about wine, health, and the wine business’ failure to deal to with all those people who say wine with dinner is binge drinking.

Paul Tincknell, a partner in the Napa marketing consultancy of Tincknell & Tincknell and the blog’s official wine marketing expert, wants the wine business to honestly talk about wine’s health problems — and its benefits. Otherwise, he says, we’re stuck with campaigns that claim anyone who drinks wine will get breast cancer.

His point: Drinking is not a black and white health issue, even though the temperance movement paints it that way. And if the wine business doesn’t call the neo-Prohibitionists on their false claims, no one will.

Included in our discussion:

• Why no one in the anti-drinking movement is going after Starbucks and its 370 calorie, fat and cholesterol bomb better known as the Caffe Mocha.

• The infamous back label drinking warning, and how it does almost no good.

• That wine needs to promote moderate and responsible drinking, which is much different from the binge drinking that wine with dinners has called.

• Wine ingredient and nutritional labels in Europe, why wine in the U.S. needs to adapt the same thing.

Click here to download or stream the podcast, which is about 18 minutes long and takes up 12 megabytes. Quality is excellent. And yes, I know I didn’t properly introduce Paul, since I was so eager to denounce Starbucks. And his calm rationality throughout is a fine counterpoint to my ranting.