Is drinking the new smoking?
I waited years before having alcohol, but is it already on its way out?
Happy birthday to Vintnerd co-founder Erin!
Erin makes jazz cool, invents cocktail recipes, brings us Booze & Boos, tells us to read more books, and has the best taste.
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Dry January is here and with it comes the headlines about people cutting back drinking. I had largely dismissed all of this before as hyperbole, clever marketing, or people who had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol finally addressing it, especially after the pandemic. Yeah, if you’re hungover on a Tuesday night, you should stop drinking for a while. I’ve been advocating for a much more moderate drinking lifestyle, like in Europe, where maybe you drink most days, but just a glass and you don’t get drunk. But, I'm finally ready to recognize that the culture around alcohol is changing, and it’s not just an American thing. Wine sales in FRANCE are down.Â
It’s not that we have banished vice or are taking care of our bodies. If drinking is the new smoking, it’s because smoking is becoming mainstream again. Gen Z smokes a lot, in fact cigarette sales rose in the U.S. in 2022 for the first time in decades. The legalization of weed and popularity of CBD also mean that cannabis is a booming business.
I don’t have the numbers, but I’d be willing to bet we’re putting more money than ever into substances that alter our bodies. Alcohol just isn’t cool anymore.
I have an interesting history with alcohol, I had my first drink 10 years ago at 27. I didn’t drink before that because of former religious beliefs that, while very dear to me, left me feeling like I had little say in decisions for my life. I also have a bit of an addictive personality (see my relationship with one Taylor Swift) and I would drink Diet Coke like it was going out of style, so part of me was always convinced I’d become an alcoholic if I started drinking. I debated that first drink for months. The first sip of wine wasn’t a rebellion, but a reimagining of who I could be.Â
Even now as a girl who helps run a wine company, I honestly don’t drink that much; I’ll sometimes go weeks without a glass. But I get defensive over this recent backlash to alcohol (also where were all these mocktails and adaptogen elixirs when I didn’t drink?!). And it’s not just because I’m trying to build a livelihood around it. The freedom to be able to drink is important to me, it was a choice I couldn’t make for myself for most of my life. I weigh the health risks now like I weighed the risks of that first glass and stepping into the unknown.Â
And you know what, I like alcohol! The world feels irrepressibly dark and true diversions are far and few between. Using alcohol as a means of escapism can be a dangerous path to trod, so I don’t mean to imply we should use it as a crutch to deal with our times. But it can bring some fun and glamor that I desperately want right now.
Few things are more fun than dancing with friends with a drink in hand or gathering around a table of good company that becomes increasingly better with each bottle. There’s a romance to it, that for thousands of years humans have connected and celebrated over drinks. An edible just can’t do that for me.Â
After 2020 and the pandemic, I understand why people are re-evaluating the need for alcohol. For one, we drank a lot the first year of lockdown. But also we had to face our own mortality and how fickle health can be. I still experience memory loss from my first round of Covid. This also probably explains the one place the wine industry is rapidly expanding, the boom of natural wines. While natural doesn’t mean healthier, people want more control over their bodies, no matter how superficial the façade is. As I age, I’m also starting to change how I drink; many mixers and mass produced wines make me tired and bloated. And for people who do decide to not drink, I have no judgment. I just ask for the same as I continue to order my wine.
My prediction for the future is that cutting back on drinking is a long term trend, and we can expect sales to continue to decline. I don’t think a generation that largely eschewed drinking in their 20’s is going to want to get lit in their 40’s. But in thirty years we’ll have a whole new generation discovering Cabernet Sauvignon for the first time, no longer a dad drink because their dads didn’t drink. Whether those of us who stick with it will be banished to a drinking section of restaurants remains to be seen, but home cocktail sets might become a sign of our age, like skinny jeans and French tucks.Â
As for me, I may look a bit like a millennial relic twenty years from now, sunglasses on, Champagne glass in hand, talking about life in the 1900’s. But hey, I guess no matter what we do, that fate waits for us all. I just hope I’ll be the kind of relic that makes the young go, damn, she makes drinking look cool.Â
To drink or not to drink, tell us what you think.
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