Hundreds of thousands of people now give up alcohol for Dry January and Sober October. Some prominent members of the wine industry are taking a stand against this trend. Robert Joseph thinks they are wrong.
Reading time: 5m 15s
People marching with ‘Drink Wine’ banners, and Robert Joseph with horns. (Image: Catharine Lowe and Midjourney AI)
The US wine writer and author of the million-copy-selling Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil deserves credit for coming up with a campaign to promote the social qualities of wine. The concept, in her own words, is for “wine drinkers to invite a colleague, a friend, a neighbour or a family member to ‘come over’ to a restaurant or a home or any gathering place, to share some wine.” I like the initiative, but I have huge reservations about the reasoning behind it. For reasons that will become clear, I wish it had been called something like ‘Gather in the Fall’.
MacNeil and her partners in the project, public relations and communications specialists Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Noelle Charles, hope the ‘Come Over October’ campaign will counter the Dry January and Sober October efforts that seek to encourage people not to drink alcohol during those months.
In a Wine Opinions/Colangelo and Partners study in December 2023, nearly two thirds of 762 wine drinkers aged between 21-39, said they were planning to participate in Sober October or Dry January this year.
Taking the two months together would, MacNeil reckoned, account for 17% of the year, “a huge amount of time during which wine drinking as we’ve known it is slipping away right before our eyes. And ironically, given wine’s role in bringing people together, all of this is happening when the Surgeon General reports that social isolation and loneliness are now at epidemic levels in the U.S.”
This prompted what MacNeil describes as “a simple idea… whose time has come.”
As a huge MacNeil fan, however, I’m sorry to say that, much as I applaud any effort to counter Neo-Prohibitionism, I really struggle to support any effort that began with a post headlined ‘Why I Hate Dry January’.
The three pillars
McNeil’s opposition to the concept is based on three pillars.
- “The narrative around wine has devolved to a discussion solely about alcohol”.
- “No one was telling the positive story about wine… [as] a communal beverage.”
- “Dry January has taken on an increasingly self-righteous tone”.
MacNeil says, “If all you wanted was alcohol, there are cheaper and faster ways to get it than by having a glass of wine”. But, as many doctors will tell you, it’s not nearly as simple as that. Wine is a socially acceptable form of alcohol. People who might never consider pouring themselves a shot of vodka or scotch at six in the evening may have no compunction in enjoying a glass, or two, or three, of the wine they’re using for a sauce for a dinner they may eat alone.
A recent piece of research into female alcohol consumption in Australia involved 50 qualitative interviews, including with women who were using wine as a substitute for company. One 60-year-old widow explicitly said that her wine was a “salve for loneliness”. A point worth noting in the context of MacNeil’s suggestion that wine could help to counter the ‘epidemic’ of isolation.
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Wine is part of the problem
In 2020, US Center for Disease Control (CDC) figures suggest that 9% of women, and 17% aged 18-25, have an alcohol use disorder (AUD). That number has to be set alongside Beverage Information Group research showing that women make up 59% of wine buyers, and that 52% of women prefer wine to other alcohol. For men, the equivalent figure is 20%.
The wine industry cannot step back from the fact that – along with the spirits and beer sectors – it is profiting from alcohol abuse, as some of its branding reveals.
Read what recovering alcoholic, Anne Dowsett Johnston says about wines with names like Girl’s Night Out, MommyJuice and Mommy’s Time Out, and nightly glasses of Pinot Grigio, in her book: Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol. As she says, speaking for many, “I drank, for the most part, what others drank.”
Similarly, the widespread incidence of ‘pre-loading’ and ‘pre-gaming’ with cheap white and rosé in Brazil, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand and the US by young and not so young people, before heading out to clubs where they will drink pricy vodka, may reflect wine’s sociability. But it has little to do with Eric Asimov’s vision of the “beauty and joy of wine, which has been embraced by humans since the dawn of civilization.” quoted by MacNeil.
Starting with a half-marathon
Wine and other forms of alcohol are many things to many people. Dry January was originally created by a young British woman called Emily Robinson in 2011 when she gave up drinking for a month in preparation for her first half-marathon. The fact that she chose to do this at the beginning of the year was not coincidental. Like many others, she had eaten and drunk far more in December than she thought was good for her. October similarly may follow weeks of possible summer holiday excess.
Of the 215,000 people across the world who officially signed up for Dry January this year, and the many more who participated unofficially, some wanted to prove to themselves and those around them that they could do without booze for four weeks. Others sought to save money or lose some of the weight they had gained during the previous month.
The inconvenient truth is that Robinson like many others who have shared their experiences online and on this NPR broadcast have felt better and healthier for taking a few weeks off. Some former alcoholics quite simply say they owe their lives to Dry January.
Is saving lives and helping people feel fitter, slimmer and less financially constrained, really something any of us should be making a stand against? Especially ‘wine people’ like McNeil, Colangelo, Asimov and myself, all of whom earn our money directly or indirectly from the consumption of fermented grape juice.
If some Dry January/Sober October practitioners are ‘self-righteous’ about their abstinence, the same can be said of many regular gym users, runners, Weight Watchers and church-goers. And, yes, I find them annoying too, but I don’t oppose their behaviour.
Not the only communal beverage
The great joy of wine is the way it can bring people together to the table to enjoy each other’s company. That’s something to celebrate. And it’s worth noting that a 750ml bottle of wine is clearly meant for sharing — it’s too big for one person.
Yet trying to combine a philanthropic gesture with what is, by any standards, a marketing campaign, is never easy. And the suggestion that wine drinking can help combat loneliness is not only highly questionable but within the European Union, one should not suggest that alcohol solves problems.
So, to return to my earlier suggestion of ‘Gather in the Fall’. There could be a range of events centred around getting people out of their homes and into company. There would be wine on offer, but also tea, coffee, beer and Coca Cola and, these days most probably, kombucha — all beverages that can do a great job of breaking down conversational barriers. Despite its importance to Judaeo-Christian civilisation, wine, it should be remembered, has historically only performed this role for a minority of the population of planet Earth.
These events could be supported by the various beverage brands, and they could raise money for good causes — just as Dry January and Sober October do for Cancer Research.
Alongside this, there could also be a totally separate campaign to promote wine’s role in history and culture. Eric Asimov’s text will be a great place to start.
So, yes, let’s work together to promote wine as a wonderful, mysterious, fascinating, delicious beverage but, to use a current expression, let’s not hate on the efforts of people who, for whatever reason, temporarily or permanently decide not to drink it.
That’s entirely their prerogative.
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Reading time: 6m
The views and opinions expressed in the Devil’s Advocate pieces are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the publication. They are intended to provoke discussion and debate. If you would like to offer your own response to this or any other article, please email the editor-in-chief, Anja Zimmer at zimmer@meininger.de.