Recent trends in wine drinking in the USA

Before the current pandemic, the USA was the world's largest consumer of wine. However, this was not because your “average” American drank wine. No, it was because the USA has the third largest population in the world (the United Nations lists the USA behind only China and India, although quite a long way behind). So, back in 2016, for example, the USA was listed as only the 48th country, based on Annual wine consumption per person, way behind places like Portugal, France and Slovenia (in each of which more than 50% of national alcohol consumption is wine).

Things have, of course, changed since those days, particularly decreases; and I will look at some of those changes here.

I will be talking about wine in the USA, but as a quick aside, it has also been reported that over recent decades there has been a “seemingly perpetual decline in consumption of France’s national drink” (Why are the French drinking less wine?). The industry has its ups and downs, but in France it seems to be slowly but continually down.

Actually, the part of the French wine industry going “down” is what they call “country wine”, the inexpensive everyday (literally, in France) tipple consumed when relaxing. * That is not far from what is currently being reported in the USA, as well, where it is the bottom of the market that is having a hard time, currently.

There has been the expectation that Robert M. Parker Jr has previously been the prime force behind wine preferences in the USA (What Are Americans drinking?). However, that has been slowly changing, with “increased social conscious consumer demand for products tied to non and low-alc., sustainability, and organic” (Beverage alcohol buying trends reflective of growing consumer consciousness). More importantly, though, Americans are drinking less alcohol, in general (Americans are consuming fewer AlcBev drinks per week), and price has come to the fore (2/3 of consumers cutting back on BevAlc purchases because of inflation). Indeed, we are even told that: Financial constraints blunt consumers support for sustainability.

So, it seems to be inflation that is the current issue — wine prices are going up, but our incomes are not. However, if we look at this point with respect to wine, it is not always true that wine prices are determined solely by inflation (Why wine is actually cheaper after inflation). Here is a graph based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (via Mashed). It refers to the average cost, per month, of: “Wine, red and white table, all sizes, any origin, per 1 liter (33.8 oz.)” (Data Series ID: 720311).

The data start (horizontally) at the beginning of 2019, and run monthly until the present. The black points represent the actual price (vertically). The pink points are the increase in price calculated based on the reported monthly inflation (from US Inflation Rate ). So, when the pink line is above the black line, then US wine has not increased in price as fast as inflation would suggest; and when the pink line is below the black line, then wine has gone up in price faster than we would expect from inflation alone.

As you can see, both situations have occurred in the past few years. Up until October 2020, Americans were doing well (average wine price stayed below inflation), but then things went really bad. The pandemic started in January 2020, but by October its effects had really settled in; and things stayed that way for a year, as wine prices peaked. However, for the next half-year, things were pretty much as we would have forecast way back at the beginning of 2019 (wine price = inflation price). Since April, prices have dropped and then risen again — and it is the increase over the past 4 months that the current media discussion is all about, as wine prices are now as high as they have ever been.

The basic issue here is that not all effects on wine price are reflected by inflation. For example, there are currently: “supply-side shortages of crucial ingredients and packaging materials, lower yields of raw materials brought on by summer droughts, and skyrocketing energy costs” (Alcohol beverage industry facing “unprecedented” challenges but remains resilient). Both the pandemic and the war in the Ukraine are usually fingered as the prime causes of disruptions, while drought is a particular problem in the USA. **

So, where does that leave us? Well, current US wine prices are actually less than we would have forecast 3 years ago, given the US inflation rate since then. That, however, does not make the wallets of American wine drinkers feel any better. So, it has been noted that the U.S. table wine market remains sluggish, but above $15 brands thrive. In other words, it is the cheap stuff that is suffering:

As the on-premise sector continues its slow but steady recovery from the pandemic, the U.S. wine market is expected to eke out another gain in dollar terms in 2022, but volumes will fall for the second consecutive year.

Interestingly, it seems that the extreme upper end is actually doing very well: Inflation shelter? Super-premium is the place to be. As a pensioner, I don’t really need an inflation shelter, but I really could do without inflation eating away at my pension. Wisely, I have stashed away some wine over the years, and so I can continue to drink well for the foreseeable future (but not super-premium).

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* You should check out this old advice: No more than a litre of wine a day, recommends a 1950s French sobriety poster.

** The Ukraine war, for example, has had a dramatic effect on European Union energy costs, and particularly in the United Kingdom. Here in Sweden, electricity prices recently peaked at 3.5x last year's prices.

Long-term trends in wine import and export value for the USA

The wine industry is having a rocky time, just at the moment, with disruptions to both the supply and demand sides of the economic equation. Sadly, things are not expected to get any better any time soon (Storm clouds ahead for global wine trade). So, it is timely to look at long-term trends in imports and exports, so that we have a baseline from which to assess the future.

Some countries are known in the wine world principally as exporters (eg. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal), while others are known principally as importers (eg. China, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden). There are some, however, who do a lot of both (eg. United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa). So, here I will look at the monetary value of wine imports versus exports specifically for the USA.

Let’s start with exports. Here is a graph showing the monetary value of wine exports from the USA over the past 30 years (the data are from the AAWE: Value of U.S. wine and beer exports, 1991–2021). As expected, the value has increased over that period of time. Indeed, the increase has been an average of 55 million USD per year, which is about 10% greater than the inflation-adjusted value over the same period of time. *

However, clearly the increase has not been steady, over at least part of that time. The increase does look pretty steady from 1994—2010, as I have indicated by my added straight line for that period (a linear regression, which accounts for 93% of the data variation). This was followed by a rapid increase in exports for 2 years, amounting to a 40% increase in value, after which things have remained pretty stable (or stagnant, if you are a pessimist). Interestingly, if we had used the 1994—2010 regression to forecast the situation in 2018—2019, we would have arrived at pretty much what actually happened in those two years — that is, the recent steady-state of exports has now completely nullified the rapid increase back in 2009—2011.

The increase in export value in 2010 has been noted before (Record high 2010 wine shipments make U.S. the world's largest wine-consuming nation):

In 2010, U.S. wine exports ... jumped 25.6% in value to an estimated $1.14 billion in winery revenues. Volume shipments rose 1.9% to 47.3 million nine-liter cases ... Changes in the dollar exchange rate, a gradually recovering economy and California's effective marketing and high wine quality have helped exports rebound.

Jon Moramarco provides a bit more detail: The period from 2009 to 2013 was driven by packaged wines as opposed to bulk wines. This was driven by an increase in average value per case, as opposed to significant volume growth. During this period, the USD was fairly weak, which made higher priced CA wines more competitive globally.

However, I am not sure how complete that explanation might be. Certainly, any optimism about the future was misplaced, as the exports simply stagnated for the next decade. Maybe the following scenario also played a part [thanks to Bob Henry for help here]:

In the robust economic times preceding the 2007 onset of the economic decline, vineyard owners / wineries optimistically planted more land, to meet rising wine sales demand. However, it took a few years for those new acres to yield a worthwhile crop; and those bountiful grapes then came to market during the 2008 Recession. Obviously, the public's appetite for “fine” wine then fell during The Great Recession; and, so wineries pivoted to selling into the export market to move all those new cases of unneeded wine.

Now let’s turn to imports. Here is a graph showing the monetary value of wine imports into the USA over the past 30 years (the data are from the AAWE: Value of U.S. wine imports, 1992–2021).

Here, also, there has been an increase in value through time, with an average increase of 210 million USD per year, which is about 25% greater than the inflation-adjusted value over the same period of time. * In this case, though, the increase has been steady over that whole time (as shown by my linear regression, which accounts for 98% of the data variation). However, wine imports took a bit of a hit in 2020; but they recovered to the regression-forecast value in 2021). [Note that the exports also took a bit of a hit in 2020.]

Importantly, wine imports have always greatly exceed exports. That is, the USA is massively a net wine importer, by value, not producing locally anything like the national consumption requirements for vinous beverages. However, the excess of wine import value over wine export value has changed through time. For example, back in the early 1990s, imports exceeded exports 6-fold, whereas in the early 2010s the excess was only 4-fold — it is currently closer to 5-fold.

This, of course, makes the United States one of the most-attractive consumer markets for wine producers worldwide. However, it has been reported that: foreign winemakers “have found it a frustrating and competitive market in which to enter and conduct business. The struggles are manifold, but, primarily, it’s a question of finding the right importer or distributor to help them navigate the system” (How to crack the U.S. import market). However, another issue seems to be the type of wines exported to the USA (Americanization or improvement? Tailoring wine for export). That is, should the local wines be adapted for the American market (eg. riper and richer wines, “international” grape varieties, use of new French oak)? This would be an unfortunate trend, should it become firmly established.

From the US perspective, it is reported that the wine industry has a greater impact on the national economy today than it did five years ago (What is wine's economic impact on the American economy?). With the increasing value of both imports and exports, things can only get better. It is reported that, for beer, spirits and wine, packaged imports grew 12% by value in the 12 months through August 2022, while packaged exports grow +20%, which is in line with the above data for wine. Apparently, The wine industry didn’t just weather the pandemic: it grew.

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* Calculated based on the data provided in Historical inflation rates: 1914–2022. This amounts to an average inflation rate of 2.38% per year — since 2012, the U.S. Federal Reserve has targeted a 2% inflation rate for the US economy, and may intervene if inflation is not within that range.

You were first warned about global warming 110 years ago, did you know that?

Yes, that’s right — you were first warned about global warming 110 years ago, so stop pretending it is new! The first published newspaper warning about global warming, as a result of pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, started doing the rounds way back in 1912. It was only a short note, but is was reprinted in quite a few newspapers around the world.

Here is one copy of it, from a New Zealand newspaper, for August 1912.

Note that the short text gets two things right, and one thing wrong. It correctly identifies that, in those days, it was the mass burning of coal, that was the main problem. That is, there was no warming problem before the advent of the Industrial Revolution — the burning of wood for local industry, for example, did not create an issue. The note also accurately and simply identifies the mechanism of warming. Carbon dioxide forms a blanket around the Earth, which traps the planet’s own warmth — we are heating ourselves from the inside out.

What it, sadly, gets wrong, of course, is how long it will take for this to become a serious issue. In practice, it took little more than half a century for the effects of the warming to become obvious (see my post How can you doubt global warming?), and only one century for people to become seriously concerned. That is still an awful long time; but the pace of the modern world was outside the experience of the original forecaster, and could therefore not be accounted for. Nor, of course, could the forecast account for the expansion of motor transport, which has exacerbated the problem.

The wine industry has long noted the practical effects (Grape harvest dates and the evidence for global warming), although they have not always realized that the future is now (Why have we left it so late to deal with climate change in the wine industry?).

For the wine industry, there are two obvious practical effects of climate change. The first is the change of locations that are suitable for particular grape varieties, and even for viticulture as a whole. Vineyards are moving towards the poles. The warm regions are now drought-affected (Droughts, heat and fire: the future of wine in the climate crisis), and the cool regions are now warm. In the southern hemisphere there is a limit to pole-ward movement, because the Indian Ocean separates the habitable continents from the colder one (Antarctica).

On the other hand, in the north the movement can be gradual. The most northerly vineyard that I know of in Sweden is a very small one just north of my own town, Uppsala (lat-long: 59.89159, 17.61821). This latitude would be half-way north up Hudson Bay, for you Americans. The grapevines are due for its first decent harvest, just about now. However, this does not come even close to the most northerly one in Norway. Slinde Vineyard is on the northern slope of Sognefjord (lat-long: 61.16101, 6.93094), and was founded in 2014 (pictured below). This would have been unthinkable at the turn of the century. We don’t yet have grapes from the Midnight Sun, but we may soon do so.

The second obvious effect is greater variability in weather patterns. Jamie Goode has recently suggested  the term Climate Chaos, rather than the more usual climate change, to describe this (Will climate chaos kill Burgundy?). He is exaggerating (there is a formal scientific definition of Chaos, and the current weather is far too predictable for that), but he is doing it for a very good reason. Many people are still under-estimating what we expect is going to happen next (UCSB scientists see the end of ‘normal’ climate). I have noted before that here in Sweden we have dealt with this sort of climate for centuries, and call it April Weather — the rest of you need to get used to it, too.

There have, of course, been lone voices in the wilderness, warning the wine industry about what is coming. One of the most prominent of these was Oz Clarke, hardly an unknown member of the wine industry. Andrew Plantinga has recently reminded us that:

Mr. Clarke was an early voice of warning. His keynote address at the 1993 New York Wine Experience, a high-profile event featuring top wine-makers from around the world, focused on the adjustments the wine industry would inevitably have to make in a warming world. He spoke of how wine-makers were going to have to change the style of their wines and adopt new grape varieties.

It sounds familiar, all of 30 years ago (10 ways climate change is threatening the world's wine industry).

Forecasting does not require a crystal ball. All it says is: “If nothing comes along to change things, then what happened last time will happen again next time.” So, the big emitters in the past will continue to be so, unless they change their behavior. For your information, the following graph is from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

More about law violations in the US wine industry (its murkier than you think)

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at How bad are law violations in the US wine industry, and summarized the (sometimes very large) legal fines to members of the commercial wine industry. Well, fines are not the only possible (formal) outcome of violations of alcohol (and other) laws in the USA. Here, I look at the other three possible outcomes, which comprise the rest of the murky legal world of official wine regulation. It all seems a bit shady to me; but I am sure that there is a good reason for all of it.

The legal actions that I am referring to come from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (as pointed out by an anonymous commenter on my previous blog post). The TTB refers to these as Administrative Actions, which are described as follows:

Adverse actions are taken to administratively resolve willful violations of alcohol and tobacco laws and can include:

• Voluntary Surrender
• Suspensions
• Offers in Compromise.

So, this includes violations of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act. It also, incidentally, involves non-payment of taxes (excise duty) related to the import and export of firearms.

When collating the online data, I allocated the official allegation to one of several categories, based on the specific allegation. For example, distributors sometimes have licenses for all alcohol beverages, but if they were accused of a violation involving “malt beverages” only, then it was allocated to “Beer”. “Wine” includes vineyards, wineries, warehousing, distributors, wholesalers and importers. “Spirits” includes industrial alcohol.

Let’s take all three of them, in order.

Voluntary Surrender

Official description:

Industry members can elect to voluntarily surrender their permit in lieu of administrative action being taken against their permit. This usually occurs after the industry member has been issued an Order to Show Cause.

There are no data listed on the TTB web page.

Suspensions

Official description:

The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act and 27 CFR Part 71 provide for suspension of an industry member's permit if the permit holder has willfully violated any condition of its basic permit. An industry member can agree to a stipulated suspension prior to the initiation of a formal hearing. If an informal resolution cannot be reached, Section 204(e)(1) of the FAA Act allows for permit suspension after notice is given to the permit holder; a hearing is held; and, the agency’s charges are upheld.

The data listed online cover only Aug 2018 to Jul 2020. In those two years there were 34 suspensions listed, 32 of them from companies in the wine industry (plus one for beer and one for tobacco).

Suspensions can be a little as one day. They usually occur because it is cheaper than legally defending, at a formal hearing, the Order to Show Cause accusation of willful violation of the conditions of permit. Does this mean that these actions refer to smaller wine companies, which have less money available to fight legal actions? Or perhaps they are simply smaller violations, that require no big financial penalty? Or perhaps a 1-day suspension is simply no big deal?

Offers in Compromise

Official description:

Titles 26 and 27 of the United States Code contain provisions for the compromise of certain civil and criminal cases. In this context, a compromise is an agreement made between the Government and an alleged violator in lieu of civil proceedings or criminal prosecution. TTB generally considers offers in compromise for any violation of the laws and regulations it administers; and TTB will provide appropriate assistance to any person or business that wishes to make an Offer in Compromise.

The data listed are for Accepted Offers in Compromise, and date back to 2003. The idea is, apparently, to save everyone involved the expense (time and money) of having a public court determine the amount of the fine (these are referred to by the TTB as “potential litigation hazards”). So, the accused party officially makes an offer, and the TTB officially agrees to accept it (after some negotiation?). * The conclusion is apparently that “the amount is both commensurate with the nature of the violations and is sufficient to deter recurrence.” Suspensions (see above) may also be involved.

In many cases, the issue at hand was doubt as to liability (eg. miscalculation of credits, failure to timely file Excise tax forms, or unexplained inventory shortages), and also doubt as to collectibility of any monies owing to the government (eg. involving Pay-for-Play situations). Large Offers often involved a down-payment, followed by monthly installments. The defendant can negotiate all of this much less publicly than paying a court fine.

There are 314 accepted Offers listed, with 74 of them from companies in the wine industry (24%), for an average of $26,500 each (median = $15,000). This compares to 60 Offers from the beer industry (median = $38,000), 87 from the spirits industry (median = $35,000), 54 from the tobacco industry (median = $38,000), and 23 from the firearms industry (median = $100,000). There are a few miscellaneous ones, as well.

The smallest Offer was $1.00, while the largest was $28,578,944.69. We can compare this (incredibly precise number) to what I listed in my previous post on legal violations within the wine industry. In the current case there were 18 Offers of at least $1 million, whereas for the court fines there were only 5. However, none of these high Offers were from the wine industry — 6 were from the tobacco industry (including 1 of the top 3), 5 from the beer industry, 4 from the spirits industry (including the 2 of the top 3), and 3 from the firearms industry. The biggest offer explicitly from within the wine industry was $144,000. So, the wine industry gets fined, rather than making Offers!

Interestingly, one-third of the cases occurred during 2008-2011. A lot of them seemed to involve what the TTB sometimes refers to as a “slotting allowance ... in order to obtain favorable product placement and display space, in violation of the tied house provisions”. These often incurred some of the biggest payments, most often involving beer (on tap). **

The idea of avoiding repeat occurrence of violations has not always been successful. For example, in 1991 the McKenzie River Corporation (a producer of malt-related products) was fined when it was sued by the Attorney General of New York over advertisements allegedly directed at underage children (When hip-hop first went corporate). The suit was settled out of court; but the company was also fined and temporarily shut down by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Well, in 2007 it was involved in an Offers in Compromise with the TTB, for publishing print advertisements implying that its alcohol beverage product has a stimulating or energizing effect on the consumer (TTB suspends McKenzie River permit for misleading health-related advertising claims). The TTB has clearly stated that alcohol beverage advertisements making energy claims are misleading health-related statements. Some people never learn.

Some of the Compromises have been quite general, involving several companies simultaneously. The biggest appears to be a group from 2008 and 2009. Nine different “importers or wholesalers of wine, distilled spirits and/or malt beverages” were alleged to have, during either 2003-2004, or 2003-2005 or 1996–2007 (depending on the company): “violated the conditions of [their] basic permits by furnishing or giving money, free goods, and/or other things of value to Skyline Marketing, Inc., a merchandising / promotional company, and/or Sam’s Wine & Spirits, Inc. a retail liquor dealer. The government further alleged that [the companies] paid or credited the above-referenced entities for advertising, display or distribution service, and/or purchased or rented display, shelf, storage or warehouse space.” That is, Sam’s received payment or credit either directly, or else indirectly through Skyline. The nine Offers were: $3,000, $10,000, $18,000, $30,000, $40,000, $110,000, $130,000, $225,000 and $225,000 (which adds to more than $790,000). We are not told why the big differences in payment.

A really beautiful example involved three companies “engaged in the business of importing and selling firearms”, all of which during “the period beginning January 2000 and ending June 30 2007 failed to pay excise tax for the importation of firearms.” Isn’t this technically smuggling? Quite an oversight, for all of 7.5 years! It cost them a total of $750,000.

A particularly good day for the TTB was 02/02/09, on which date they received three Offers from The Boston Beer Company for a total of $1,192,840, plus two Offers from Samuel Adams Brewery Company for a total of $2,507,160. Quite a windfall. The wine industry was never like these brewers!

Conclusion

You can probably now see why I suggest that this is somewhat murky. There is a public record of these illegal events, but it is tucked away where the media will generally ignore it. The outcome is nowhere near as public as the results of court cases — court cases involve a fine, whereas these cases do not. The media thus seem to be far less interested. For example, does anyone remember any fuss being made about the Skyline / Sam’s Wine business discussed above? I can find no online media commentary from that time, in spite of the magnitude of the financial penalties involved.

This whole business may become even more problematic in the near future. Different US states treat alcoholic beverages in different ways — for example, a malt seltzer and a spirits seltzer might seem identical to the customer, but they can be subject to different laws in different states (A better way to define alcohol product types). Under these circumstances, trying to stay legal can be tricky.

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* As one example: the “Amount of Liability Being Compromised” was $51,931.70, while the “Amount of Offer” was $15,000.00. The TTB could fight in court for the first amount, or immediately accept the second one. As a second example: the “Amount of Liability Being Compromised” was $97,527.31, but the “Amount of Offer” was $57,000.00, which was the amount of the company’s registered cash bond, since the winery had discontinued business between the time of the alleged violation and the TTB action.

** With some very careful wording:

“furnishing things of value to various retailers in order to obtain favorable product placement and shelf space”

“use of third parties (business entities and payment services) to provide money or things of value to retailers for placement of malt beverages”

“payment to the third-party promotional company or affiliate [that] resulted in the retailer, or an officer, employee, or representative of the retailer, receiving payment for advertising, display, and distribution services related to [a particular] brand of malt beverages ... Specifically, [the accused] made payments, in part, to secure tap handles”

Modern women, and stress-induced wine drinking

Several media reports have appeared discussing problems that some women are apparently having with alcohol use, particularly in recent times. These reports emphasize the difference between males and females, in terms of their reaction to, and relationship with, alcohol. If true, then these reports represent quite a serious issue; and it is thus worth discussing here. The differences between males and females, and their relationship to wine, for example, are complex; and so this is not a simple topic.

I will start, therefore, with an apparent aside, although its purpose will become obvious. Back in my day (40 years ago), things were arranged simply, when it came to eating and drinking. The males and females alternated around a large table. The idea was that the man on one side of the woman engaged her in conversation, while the man on the other side filled up her wine glass. In this manner, the woman never knew how much she had been drinking, because her glass was always quite full.

Now, this may sound a bit gender biased to some of today's young people; but I can assure them that the women were in on it, too, just as much as the men. You see, a woman could not simply bang her glass on the table and say: "Fill 'er up", like she was at a petrol bowser. No, only the men could do that — a woman had to be more discreet. So, I would not be even slightly surprised if I learned that it was the women who originally insisted upon the above arrangement. It marries decorum with a fair distribution of the wine.

Apparently, women these days do not do it this way. I do not know exactly how they do do it, now, since I am an elderly married man, and am thus not allowed to fraternize with other women (unless I am related to them). However, I am pretty certain that the above arrangement plays little part in their current wine-drinking lives.

This story relates very closely to the reported changes in the relationship of women to wine. It is not a love story, the way it should be. Instead, we have reports recognizing that, even now, Women’s alcohol consumption is treated differently from men’s, in terms of who can drink how much of what, and when — but in no improved social way. That is, the male/female cultural difference still exists, but it doesn't seem to work so well any more. *

In my day, women did not necessarily like the difference in treatment of men and women, but they knew how to make it work for them, which is what the above story is all about. Apparently, this is no longer true — things are different now, but not necessarily any better in practice.

The recent Gallup alcohol survey 2022 noted that just 17% of men say they prefer wine, compared to 49% of women. In spite of this, in the USA “wine has always been synonymous with a particular type of crowd — one that is affluent, older, mostly male, and mostly white” (What it’s really like to be a wine influencer). The contradiction here should be obvious.** Interestingly, it also seems that Men/women differ greatly in wine price purchases — for net sales, women dominate at prices below $30. Indeed, if you want the data by brand, then see: Drinkers of domestic U.S. wine brands by gender.

Let's get one thing clear, though — there are biological differences between males and females. Reproduction would not work very well, otherwise (nor would it be half as much fun). One of these distinctions involves Gender differences in alcohol metabolism. Males and females vary in the amount and activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), the enzyme principally responsible for metabolizing alcohol. Males have more ADH, and so they break down the alcohol faster; or, if you prefer, women stay drunk longer, on average. Therefore, females should not try to match the males drink for drink, for example.

In this sense, the reported increase in female consumption in recent years is worth noting, because there is quite likely to be a negative reason (or two) for it: Women now drink as much as men — not so much for pleasure, but to cope:

For nearly a century, women have been closing the gender gap in alcohol consumption, binge-drinking, and alcohol use disorder. What was previously a 3-1 ratio for risky drinking habits in men versus women is closer to 1-to-1 globally, a 2016 analysis of several dozen studies suggested. And the latest U.S. data from 2019 shows that women in their teens and early 20s reported drinking and getting drunk at higher rates than their male peers — in some cases for the first time since researchers began measuring such behavior. This trend parallels the rise in mental health concerns among young women, and researchers worry that the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could amplify both patterns.

Research shows women suffer health consequences of alcohol — liver disease, heart disease, and cancer — more quickly than men, and even with lower levels of consumption. Perhaps most concerning is that the rising gender equality in alcohol use doesn't extend to the recognition or treatment of alcohol disorders. So, even as some women drink more, they're often less likely to get the help they need.

It thus seems that the pandemic has exacerbated a trend that was already occurring: Behind the uptick in women’s alcohol consumption: stress, stereotypes, marketing:

During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a flurry of studies made it into the news cycle: Heavy drinking and alcohol-related deaths were spiking in the U.S. The increase was particularly noticeable for women ... Research last year found a connection between the amount and frequency of alcohol consumed and pandemic-related stress and anxiety. Women were more likely than men to experience layoffs, or leave their jobs to care for children when schools and child care centers closed. They often took on more responsibilities, as well, like running errands for immuno-compromised relatives. For many, an extra glass or two of something red, white or brown provided some respite at a time when life felt heavy.

The idea is thus that, for many midlife women, alcohol makes life better — or at least, livable (What midlife women told us about drinking — and why it’s so hard to stop). Indeed, Alcohol can be a major problem for women in the workplace: “The connection between alcohol, social networking and career progression in a ‘work hard, play hard’ culture is both disadvantageous and dangerous for women.”

If the increase in alcohol consumption is stress-related, then we should ask: Anxiety and alcohol: does drinking worsen symptoms? The short answer is: Yes, in many ways (sleep disruption, mineral depletion, dehydration, poor food choices, social embarrassment, etc). So, this is a social issue that needs to be seriously discussed, and addressed.

Note that one of the indirect reasons that this matters is because a study has found that children, despite not drinking alcohol until adolescence, can internalize adult drinking behaviors from a young age (Parents influence perceptions of alcohol, study finds). We know that parents matter, but we also need to keep in mind the specific ways in which they matter, whether we are aware of them or not.

On a final, and depressing note, it has been pointed out that Senior citizens face mental and financial stress, especially women:

On nearly every metric, female seniors reported themselves to be struggling compared to their male counterparts. From finances to mental health, many more women than men note that they are dissatisfied, and stressed about finances and support. When it comes to enjoying later life, there appears to be a gender gap in connectedness, and women are more likely to be stressed during their golden years.

Conclusion

There is not only People and Wine, there is also specifically Women and Wine. So, official (ie. governmental) attention needs to be paid not only to social issues like alcoholism, but also to gender differences in alcohol consumption, and its effect, if we are to live in a high-quality gender-equal social environment.

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* Did you know that high-heel shoes were not originally designed for women to walk in? They were apparently designed in the 16th century, when the Persian army sent their cavalry out to defeat the Ottoman Empire wearing high heels — when a soldier stood up in his stirrups, the heels helped him to secure his stance, so that he could shoot his bow and arrow more effectively. Aristocratic men in Europe later adopted the style, so that it became the height of male fashion.  In the mid 17th century an “androgynous fashion fad saw women copying elements of men’s dress and trying to ‘masculinise’ their look” (Women wear high heels because we are idiots, says history). And, yes, historically, men also wore corsets (Men wore corsets, history says). The gender divide is smaller than you think!

** We also have these data: Japan’s female drinkers and urbanites drove Bourgogne exports to record high. Contrast this with this one: More people than ever in the USA are making six-figure salaries. Good news because wine tends to be an upper income Alcbev.