World of Nothing: A Wine Free Future

The last topic I wanted to write about, but it affects us all

As 2025 draws to a close, it doesn’t feel like the brightest moment for wine. Worldwide, economies are down, sales are down, consumption is down and worst of all, the anti-alcohol lobby is definitely, positively coming for us.

I’m willing to admit previous denial about this. At least, I’ve tried to retain an upbeat stance over the last couple of years. But it is increasingly clear that society is changing, and as author Derek Thompson suggested recently, “the alcohol era is over.”

Wine often received a free pass when it came to health concerns, partly due to conflicting research, partly because of its deep cultural and societal roots. Now it must battle a temperance movement that accepts no nuance between someone enjoying a glass of wine with dinner and a street drinker necking budget scotch straight from the bottle.

Check out Felicity Carter’s newsletter for more on this worrying trend.

As the World Health Organisation toughened their stance - they now assert there is no safe level of alcohol consumption - successive governments have taken up the chant. Canada downsized its recommended levels of alcohol consumption in 2023 to two or less standard drinks per week. The US Surgeon General echoed WHO policy in a statement made in January 2025, saying there is no safe limit.

Alongside government policy, alcohol is more insidiously being cancelled in public life. Here’s an example: a friend who works as a nurse told me her Christmas hamper from the hospital formerly always included a bottle of wine. Not any more.

Cost-cutting? Not entirely: It’s implicitly no longer acceptable for a public body to promote the consumption of alcohol. Not to mention an ever-increasing number of tee-total employees, for whom the gift would be at best wasted and at worst seen as offensive.

The Chinese government’s new ban on any alcohol consumption at state events might sound extreme. But when the self-appointed leader of the free world is himself a non-drinker, who knows when western nations might follow suit?

Toxic

Then there’s the tidal wave of wellness-scaremongering.