Removing the largest glass of wine from sale cuts the total amount people drink by 7.6%, a four-week trial in 21 pubs, bars and restaurants suggests. With the largest measure, 250ml - equal to a third of a bottle - off the menu, more 125ml and 175ml glasses of wine were sold.Most people who drink wine by the glass in bars and restaurants probably only have one, so it’s almost inevitable that reducing the maximum size available will result in lower consumption. But surely they should be treated as responsible adults who are capable of making their own decisions, and given the choice of a larger measure, rather than being subjected to these nannying “nudge” restrictions.Customers bought the same amount of wine by the bottle, but overall, less volume of wine was sold daily. Sales of beer and cider stayed the same as did the venues' overall takings. "Value for money" was likely to have been a factor in the drop in the amount of wine sold, the University of Cambridge researchers say. However, they believe the policy should now be "considered" for trial by licensing authorities.
In the coming years we are likely to see a growing number of attempts to micromanage people’s behaviour in this kind of way “for their own good”. I fear the trend will only intensify if we see the election of a Labour government later this year.
This news prompted the publication in the Telegraph of an opinion piece by Ross Clark entitled An alcohol ban is beginning to look inevitable. Maybe this seems alarmist, but that is certainly the general direction of policy, and who would have imagined twenty years ago that in 2024 the government would be legislating for a gradual complete prohibition of smoking?
No doubt attention will turn next from wine to the size of beer glasses in pubs. From time to time, we see articles called something like “The Tyranny of the Pint”, arguing that this standard measure encourages over-consumption, and also tends to be associated with a toxic masculine drinking culture. Of course there is a strong attachment to the concept of a pint, in a way that there isn’t to a 250ml wine glass, and indeed the term has entered into the vernacular as a synonym for beer. But will we see in the future attempts to make pubs and bars adopt two-thirds as the standard beer measure? After all, most of the world already tends to consume draught beer in measures of 330ml or equivalent.
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The nudge policy for beer appears to be a decline in the strength of beer rather than limits on quantity.
ReplyDeleteThe pint is too culturally embedded to mess with unless you start with the kids and wait.
Beer drinkers seem to have accepted abv cuts in a way wine drinkers haven't.
Either way, prohibition is coming, and they'll be no exemption for the discerning enthusiasts of special beer.
I think you may underestimate the will of the British people to resist prohibition,previous attempts at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were defeated by mass action and there is no reason why the same shall not take place again
DeleteThe ABV cuts have been brought about by changes to duty. Most beer is brewed in the UK so brewers can respond to that.
DeleteIf the government decided to do something similar with wine would any of the big producers lower the ABV of wine?
At the time of the debate around the smoking ban, people were saying "oh, smoking prohibition will never happen", but of course it now has.
DeleteMore and more members of the rising generation are now avoiding alcohol entirely. Once non-drinkers become the majority in society, implementing anti-drink measures will become much more politically acceptable. While it's not going to amount to full prohibition or anything like it, I expect to see a lot more restrictions in the coming years.
The government have in effect done something similar with wine by introducing a sliding scale of duty, which has penalised stronger wines, mostly reds. There has been some talk of reducing wine ABVs, but it's harder to do with wine because the fermentation process naturally results in a certain strength, whereas beer can be deliberately brewed to a wide range of strengths from the same ingredients. And just watering wine down is likely to produce an unpalatable product.
DeleteSnap poll - from my usual strategic spot on the wobbly wooden chair at the corner of the bar of my local I've observed two absolutes.
ReplyDeleteAny bloke under the age of 30 ALWAYS orders Moretti.
When ordering a glass of wine - be they men for the missus or women - and being asked " small, medium or large " I cannot recall a single person replying anything other than large.
Mind you I popped into my local craft beer converted shop bar on the way there last night because I fancied something dark and really strong and I have to say the 2/3rd pint was the perfect measure for it. A half is just meh unless you're a 2nd Division ticker and a pint is sometimes too much if you've chosen badly.
That may be because pricing on wine seems to be different to beer. Most places sell a pint for roughly twice the cost of a half. But wine gets cheaper (per ml) the larger the glass you order.
DeleteThe article I read about the same subject, stated they wanted to do the same experiment with two thirds beer glasses but no pubs or bars would cooperate!
ReplyDeleteI feel like a real p**f now, had a half of plum porter the other night. Back to pints now, disaster averted.
ReplyDeleteOther parts of the world might consume draught beer in measures of 330ml or equivalent, but in most parts of the world the typical strength of beer is 5%
ReplyDeleteThis was a never-ending discussion from the nineteen-sixties, when I shared a flat with several Aussie friends...
ReplyDeletehttp://brewsnews.com.au/carbon/assets/0007db/000001/ozbeersize.jpg
Fosters wasn't really seen at all, but the love of proper English Draught beer was soon instilled in my pals!
Mind you, in ''The Scarsdale' off Ken. High Street, we often had six pints for less than a quid back then...
Of course, for beer the process started thirty years ago when we changed from a full pint of liquid to a brim measure glass with froth included.
ReplyDeleteBrim measures were always in the majority, but back then metered dispense and oversized glasses were fairly common, especially in the North and Midlands. A better system, IMV.
DeleteI've seen very few oversized pint glasses in more than 40 years of pub-going.
DeleteWell, I've seen loads, although virtually none in the past 20 years and rarely south of Birmingham. Indeed my local pub, the Nursery, had them into the present century and was using them when it became CAMRA National Pub of the Year. Probably the only POTY to have them, though.
DeleteDoesn't a measure of different drinks ensure you get roughly the same amount of alcohol so everyone gets pissed at the same rate?
ReplyDeleteA 125ml glass of (14%) wine contains roughly the same amount of alcohol as 1 pint of 4% beer (135ml glass would be exactly the same).
A 175ml glass of wine contains the same alcohol as a pint of 5.2% beer.
You would have to be drinking pints of Special Brew to keep up with someone downing 250ml glasses of wine.