Social Issues, Social Media, and Wine

Posted by Richard Beaudin on Aug 28, 2009 in Social Media | 0 comments

Since the birth of this Nation there has always been social disagreement regarding the purchase, production, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. Certainly in the early years the consumption of alcohol was safer than that of water, which carried multiple diseases.   What was consumed? Mostly distilled drinks were available as fine wine was not affordable and locally produced wine was of very poor quality often sweetened and fortified to over 20% abv.

So it is not surprising that opposing views were solidified – those whose life style included alcohol and those that strongly opposed it, all culminating in a failed  ”noble experiment” (Prohibition - 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act).

Although repealed in 1933, the results of Prohibition are clearly still felt today as these “Blue Laws” continue to regulate State by State, the purchase, distribution, and consumption of alcohol including wine.

Its with this backdrop that today’s social issues, social media and wine become interwined. How so? With regulations that often are State by State or even County by County, social media and networking bring these regulations to the fore, without which wine lovers might never be aware of the sometimes outlandlish patchwork of regulations that govern the industry.

For instance, laws that require sales of alcohol to not be within some particular distance from a church or school say in Texas, or laws that regulate the days and times of days alcohol can be sold, say somewhere in Alabama. One recently in the State of Maine allows  stores to offer a wine tasting, but requires that no children can be present.

Specifically, “An amendment to L.D. 498 by Rep. David Webster, D-Freeport, states, “Taste-testing activities must be conducted in a manner that precludes the possibility of observation by children.”

Dah, that’s about as logical as suggesting that if we refrain from all sex education in the schools as well as refrain from speaking about it in the home  that there will be no experimental sex before marriage. Yeah … right!

Well, if the sight of an adult tasting wine is detramental to our children, should it be that all restaurants need to have a special room for patrons to have their wine, beer, or mixed drinks.. from which they can run back and forth while eating. Or, maybe we ban all consumption in the home if a couple has children until the kids reach the age of 18 in fear that our children will become alcoholics as a result. (Funny that not all French,Italian and Spanish adults are alcoholics – after all, they grew up watching parents drink wine with dinner.)

Point of all of this: Social media brings social issues such as the purchase, distribution and shipping of wine  to the forefront as never before. It also highlights legislation that seems ignorant at best.

Beyond Google alerts, platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Wine2.0, as well as many others, provide insights into a constant barrage of wine related issues. Its not hard to stay informed today.

With the advent of online access and subsequent participation in various social media and networking platforms, I can only hope that the citizens of this Nation will educate themselves on the issues, and by doing so, focus more on laws that seek accountability for ones actions rather than trying to regulate behavior that of and by itself has no adverse consequence to others.