One of the features of the recent budget which seems to have drawn a bit of commentary is the increased tax rate on ‘alcopops’ — alcoholic soft-drinks which tend to appeal to younger drinkers, particularly young women. Personally, I’m not very confident that it’s going to be effective. Thinking about my own occasional binges, the drinking tends to end for reasons other than my money running out — maybe the bar closing, or friends going home, or something like that. Maybe my drinking patterns are different to most other people, but I suspect most people leave the pub with at least enough money in their pocket for a cab home.
Unlike beer, alcopops are not a working class drink. Those who drink them can probably afford to drink the same amount for 30 cents more a drink. Apparently the government isn’t all that confident that it will reduce the rate of drinking either.
Now that the issue is firmly on the agenda (for a few days anyway), a few other ideas are emerging. The one I like most is a call to reduce the amount of alcohol in wine from 16 or 17 percent to 13 or 14 percent. Such a move is clearly targeted at the likes of the ‘big Aussie red’, where the nose is all ethanol until you’ve given it a good jiggle.
As someone who likes wine and likes dining out, I think this is a great idea. Having learned to drive in the era of ‘If you drink and drive, you’re a bloody idiot’, I’m pretty conscious of drink driving — either killing myself or losing my license would be a bad outcome, as far as I’m concerned. But if you’re dining at a restaurant as a couple, you really can’t order a whole bottle of wine and expect to drive home (a cab ride in Canberra may double the price of the evening out). And even if you’re not driving, a bottle standard-strength Aussie wine between two people is just a little too much.
Most restaurants do have wine by the glass, but in most cases the rang is a lot poorer than for complete bottles — it’s also a lot more expensive to drink by the glass. Even a few more half bottles would be a great idea, but half bottles of good wine seem to be remarkably elusive. I’m not sure if half bottles don’t exist, or places don’t stock them, but I do recall we had a couple of very nice half bottles at Tetsuya’s, so clearly they’re available somewhere.
I don’t have a bottle of wine handy (surprisingly, given I’m at work), so I’m not sure how many ‘standard drinks’ is standard for a bottle, but I think four would be ideal. Over the course of a meal, that would allow me to still drive home and wouldn’t leave the non-driver feeling too drunk to appreciate the meal.
I must look into the issue further.
5 comments:
You must be a port drinker! 14.5% is a strong wine, some of the whites are around 11% and sweet sesset wines (like late picked Riesling) can be as low as 8 or 9%, as less of the sugar is allowed to ferment.
There are about 6-8 standard drinks per bottle. Taking the upper measure (which would only apply to a big red), you could still have two glasses each over 2 hours, with the non driver having the last one (about 5 glasses to the bottle), and Officer Plod would not trouble you.
A male of medium to larger body mass could easily split the bottle in half over the same period and be OK.
They tried dealcoholising wine a while back by fractionating some of the alcohol off through centrifuging (heating kills the flavour). It was not a success - it tasted 'wrong'.
I agree with your basic premise - that winemakers should be looking to reduce the levels of alcohol in Australian wines, but would make a number of observations:
- 16 to 17 per cent is an exaggeration; what you are really talking about is wines made with ABV of 15 to 15.5% Natural fermentation beyond 15.5% is virtually impossible without fortification.
- what the winemaker should be seeking is balance. Rockford's Basket Press comes in at 15.5%, but is wonderful to drink because there's so much structure to the wine: decent tannins when young which soften over time; judicious use of oak; and lots of ripe fruit which contribute both to the taste and the alcohol level.
- sadly, however, too many Australian winemakers have used excessive alcohol to mask inferior wine, or inferior winemaking, or make up for the lack of interest in the fruit. That said, there appears to have been something of a reversal in practices here: a number of Huon Hooke's columns have discussed the trend towards better balanced and lower ABV wines.
- finally, what a wonderful thing it would be if all alcoholic drinks were taxed on alcohol content! High-end wine would suddenly become much more affordable! Somehow I don't think that's what Kev and Swannie have in mind for us, however ...
HI
Any information about how to stop drinking Alcohol...
john smith
Alcohol abuse affects millions. This site has a lot of useful information. Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol makes a big problem to socially. Sale of alcohol has to be stop. But it is not directly possible to government. So, the Government's new tax attack on binge drinking drew fire from the Opposition, with Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull rejecting the need for higher taxes on alcohol and cigarettes and warning the Rudd Government against using taxes to regulate personal behaviour.
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Roger
Alcohol Rehab
Drinks like "alcopops" tend to be a hit to younger people, not knowing that it can still have effects when taken excessively. Too much of everything is bad especially with alcohol. The advise to be given to young people who like to explore on things, would be to limit the alcohol consumption, and instead invest their time on education.
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