you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 3 months ago (12 children)

And where are the disadvantages?

  • source
  • hideshow 12 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    The alcohol industry will keep bitching about it the entire time.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (6 children)

    They can pivot to alcohol-free beer and wine, which are great by now.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Isn't alcohol free wine just... grape juice?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Grape juice is extremely sweet, so it's not a good substitute.
    Alcohol free wine is wine with the alcohol removed, which tastes very different and isn't usually sweet.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    So, they just remove the sugar from the juice...

    I mean, I made a ton of wine in the past... The only thing that happens is sugar gets converted to booze, and the booze preserves the juice.

    Its really not all that different.

    I suppose easier would be harvesting the grapes early, before they load up sugar, and juice that, and call it "alcohol free wine" lol

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Sure you can harvest the grapes early, if you want your drink to taste sour as fuck.
    I don't know if you've ever tasted alcohol-free wine, but it's really something different from grape juice.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    I agree there are few advantages to alcohol.

    But for some regions in Europe it means traditions older than the Roman empire, related to wine growing, can disappear. On steep sunny rocky slopes where little else will grow well, and it's often really deeply embedded in almost everything in such a region: restaurants, tourism, landscape... 80% inhabitants are somehow linked to the winery. Then it's not anonymous capitalist sounding "industry" but just some guy in a small village whose father's father's father ... once started an Inn with winegrowing on the side and when all 4 of such businesses in a village go bankrupt the entire village can become an abandoned wasteland in just a few years.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Modern wine-farming isn't all romantic traditions either though. It has been mechanized and intensified over the last few decades as well, with some notable disadvantages to the landscapes that have been formed by vineyards over centuries.

    I understand the existential threat, that a shrinking market poses to some wine-farmers. But I don't think wine is going to disappear completely. And maybe there's also a chance for a healthy transformation.

    The problem is, that we're gonna let merciless market dynamics decide, who can stay and who cannot, and usually that doesn't go in favour of the small players.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    Yes the ones that stand a chance are higher segment, turn to biological wine only and to "luxury experience at our vineyard". But no way French, Italian, Spanish or German wine can continue to compete in lower segments on world market flooded by cheap mass produced wine from South America, South Africa etc while demand declines. Of course it will not disappear completely from Europe, but the risk for certain villages and regions is very real because wine from other continents is silly cheap. If you do drink wine once in a while: buy regional if possible! (That goes for all agricultural products that are available from your own region)

  • source
  • parent