“Wine has been with us since the beginning of civilization. It is the temperate, civilized, sacred, romantic mealtime beverage recommended in the bible. Wine has been praised for centuries by statesmen, philosophers, poets, and scholars. Wine in moderation is an integral part of our culture, heritage, and gracious way of life.”
The above statement appeared on some wine bottles in 1989 and 1990. The late Robert Mondavi created the declaration as part of his “mission statement,” and it was the heart of his attempt to validate table wine as a moderate beverage that benefited people when consumed moderately.
The federal government initially approved the statement for use on wine bottles in 1988. Mondavi used the line until 1990, when the Department of the Treasury division that oversaw alcoholic beverages said it would no longer allow the statement to be used.
At the time, a neo-prohibitionist movement was spawned by several anti-alcohol groups, some of which claimed that any alcoholic consumption was harmful. Reporting in The Los Angeles Times then, I quoted several reputable physicians that wine in moderation was beneficial to health.
In the intervening 35 years, several other anti-alcohol movements sprang up. Most were short-lived. Today, however, a new prohibition movement has arisen and seems to have more virulence than any since the early 1990s.
Perhaps as a response to that, the Sonoma County Vintners Association has announced that it has launched a “Wine Is Us” campaign that it says is “designed to increase awareness of the many comprehensive benefits of moderate wine consumption, as reported in reputable medical studies.”
Although wineries are prohibited from making any health claims, it is unclear whether marketing agencies such as the Sonoma County Vintners, which is not under the purview of the federal government, will be permitted to make such claims.
The studies the vintners and others usually address is wine’s effect on heart disease—the No. 1 killer of Americans. This also was a key element in the famous 1991 report by CBS' “60 Minutes” in its episode entitled “The French Paradox.” That report said the French have a lower rate of heart disease than do Americans even though the French smoke more and have a diet that’s higher in fat.
The late Dr. Paul Scholten, director of women’s services at San Francisco State University, published a pamphlet in 1997 for the International Wine and Food Society in which he stated the case for moderate consumption.
“Studies at Harvard University have shown that moderate drinkers reduce their risk of coronary heart disease by 20 percent to 40 percent as well as that of angina pectoris and stroke,” Scholten wrote.
“Dr. Curtis Ellison (professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University school of Medicine) has estimated that for those who have heart disease, moderate drinking provides more health benefits than any other normal measure such as diet or exercise—except giving up smoking.”
Scholten also listed several other health benefits in his pamphlet.
Michael Haney, executive director of the Sonoma County Vintners, said his group’s “Wine Is Us” campaign will “provide a positive and informed narrative” about “the cultural, social, and well-being impacts of wine.”
