Is neo-prohibitionism taking over the world?
And will we be next in the war against wine?
Just a heads up before we get to the nitty gritty that we have two awesome events coming up. The first (next Wednesday) is a dessert and wine degustation here in New Plymouth that we are hosting at House Wine in collaboration with local chefs Mattie Patisserie. The second is our regular Wellington tasting which is on Wednesday 5 June and is going to be a deep dive into Syrah and Shiraz (with a splash of Viognier).
Yesterday was not a great day for wine news (sorry). But rather than local news, I wanted to look at some international news that could have a huge impact on the New Zealand wine industry, specifically this article from Wine-Searcher.com by W Blake Gray about upcoming potential changes to the US dietary guidelines about alcohol consumption. I had considered writing about this earlier at it off the back of Tom Wark’s reporting over the last months but decided against it, yesterdays news makes it especially relevant.
The background of this is that in January this year the WHO declared that “no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health” and that this was largely being driven by neo-temperance lobby groups like Movendi International, backed up by limited and questionable research (more here). On Wine-Seacher.com Gray sums this up stating, “Research proving that people who consume a moderate amount of alcohol are healthier than teetotallers (it's called the J-curve; you can look it up) has been ignored, while a misleading population study from the UK that emphasizes the ill health of alcoholics has been played up.”1
While this has been reported relatively widely the best coverage is in Wine Business Monthly. Movendi International isn’t an unbiased public-policy group, it is a temperance group founded in 1851 in upstate New York that rebranded in 2020.
Movendi is a portmanteau of 'modus vivendi,' meaning 'way of living;' it presents itself as a human rights, "heart-led" organization and says it is not against alcohol. Instead, "...we advocate for every person's right to choose to live free from alcohol." Yet anyone who joins must agree that "I lead a lifestyle free from the use of alcohol and other drugs."2
Wine Business Monthly describes Movendi ideology thus: “There are no artisans, small producers, or vignerons connected to land and history. There is only 'Big Alcohol,' which uses propaganda words like "moderation" and "craft" to conceal its true nature.”
This, compounded with other issues in the industry, is having a significant effect on alcohol sales generally and the wine industry specifically.
Jump to yesterday when Tom Wark published this piece, quoting a “highly reputable and respected” Washington DC source that the new US government dietary advice is that “No amount of alcohol is acceptable for a healthy lifestyle.”
This is significant news for New Zealand winegrowers, for which the US market is now the biggest by far. But it hurts on the homefront as well, last year the Heart Foundation stated that “no amount of alcohol is healthy”3 and while our governments health advice on alcohol is under review (it hasn’t been updated since 2011) and cites more recent Canadian and Australian advice it is highly likely that similar advice will be rolled out by local health agencies (probably citing US and WHO guidelines).
Likewise, there are currently multiple bills in front of Parliament to change elements of the Sale of Alcohol Act, The Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) Amendment Act 2023 will come into force at the end of this month which will make it easier for similar neo-prohibitionist groups to contest license applications.4
Wine of the week: 2021 Pyramid Valley ‘Manata’ Pinot Noir ($60)
💕 - exceptional
Canterbury based, Pyramid Valley has a storied history of producing excellent Central Otago Pinot Noir so it is great to see a new premium bottling in their collection. Manata is the new name adopted for the Loburn-Ferry Vineyard, in the Loburn sub-region, just north of Cromwell on Lake Dunstan. Loburn-Ferry was purchased by Aotearoa New Zealand Fine Wine Estates (owners of Pyramid Valley and the Hawkes Bay-based CRU brand) in 2018 and continues to produce excellent Pinot Noir under the old name (think of it this way - the brand is Loburn-Ferry, the land is Manata). As for the wine, made by the talented ex-Escarpment Huw Kinch it is a lovely, silky rich Central Otago style which combines traditional intense fruit ripeness with modernist elegance seamlessly. Ripe fruit with earthy undertones and reserved amounts of whole-bunch and new-oak portions showing through. This is an excellent and stylish Central Otago Pinot which shows the pedigree of the Loburn subregion beautifully.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2024/05/feds-prepare-to-call-wine-unsafe?utm_source=WineSearcher&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=22%2F05%2F24&utm_id=Newsletter&utm_term=Wine-Searcher&utm_content=newsletter
https://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/article/284944
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/27/no-amount-of-alcohol-is-healthy-heart-foundation-warns/
https://duncancotterill.com/insights/upcoming-changes-to-sale-of-alcohol-legislation-are-brewing/
Oof. I wish I could “like” a post without indicating that I “like” it.