Thread

California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

jnaina · 1790646571 · focus · HN ↗
I'm Gen X. I lived my best life in the 80s and 90s, socializing, partying (frat boy years included), with alcohol as the main social lubricant. After Covid, almost everyone in my circle stopped or cut back on going out to bars and drinking, me included. It wasn't the price of drinks. Something about the lockdowns simply rewired the social norms (and our brains).
I feel for the farmers. I still miss a nicely chilled Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc now and then.
1. kkotak · 1790647053 · focus · HN ↗
  As a fellow Gen Xer I identify with this. More and more of my friends drink less and less and when they do they prefer a cocktail instead. I think wine has lost the appeal it used to have in the early 2000s. The cost of a glass of wine in the restaurant doesn't help either. As an ex-avid wine drinker, I would be hard pressed to spend more than $30 of a bottle because of the diminishing difference in incremental quality after that price point.
2. breezybottom · 1790647607 · focus · HN ↗
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  1. dceddia · 1790648394 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah it’s probably both at once though. At least my experience has been that spending some time away from alcohol made the negative effects more apparent, and simultaneously, time marches on, making the negative effects more pronounced.
  2. hamsterballclea · 1790649192 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s hip to be square. <a href="https://youtu.be/LB5YkmjalDg" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/LB5YkmjalDg
  3. mikeg8 · 1790649867 · focus · HN ↗
    To imply that the global pandemic and lockdowns didn’t effect social norms going forward is incredibly ignorant. A little more than “getting old”
    breezybottom · 1790681284 · focus · HN ↗
    It's not a social norm if you're the only one doing it.
  4. kelnos · 1790651136 · focus · HN ↗
    It's both. We got older, but COVID hastened a change in behavior and helped lock it in (if you'll excuse the expression).
3. [deleted] · 1790649697 · focus · HN ↗
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4. bunderbunder · 1790650821 · focus · HN ↗
  Millennial here, and it was the same for me.
  The thing is, over lockdown I stopped drinking socially. And then I realized I didn’t miss the feeling of intoxication. And then I realized my sleep got a whole lot better.
  And then lockdown loosened, so some friends and I went out for drinks for old times’ sake, and I felt awful, both that evening and the next morning. My tolerance for alcohol is just gone, and I don’t have any particular desire to get it back.
  1. globular-toast · 1790661159 · focus · HN ↗
    I had the same realisation but before COVID. I had a friend who didn't drink, but he was always the most fun person to be around. I realised you didn't need alcohol, or any drugs, to have a good time. Without alcohol I was funnier, had more and better sex, slept better, and had no hangover the next day. I never looked back really.
    Nowadays I'm older and not looking for sex so don't take part in that scene. I would say a few years ago when I would go out there was still some peer pressure to drink and I was considered odd going for non-alcoholic options. But nowadays it's not weird at all and the alcohol-free options are much more numerous and varied. Lime and soda was my go to for years but now I'll partake of an alcohol-free beer or cider.
5. boobsbr · 1790671158 · focus · HN ↗
  I just drink at home now. It's cheaper and I can find different beers I want to taste rather than the meager selection available at a pub.
6. BoxOfRain · 1790677037 · focus · HN ↗
  I found the opposite effect from covid personally as a 'zillennial'. As soon as the lockdowns and 'rule of six' were over the first thing me and my friends did was rent a nice house in the middle of the Welsh countryside and have a massive multi-day party. We all felt that lockdowns had stolen what was left of our early 20s from us and wanted to make up for it!
  I often wonder if there's a lot of national differences here, in the UK people for the most part wanted to reverse everything about the covid norms as quickly as possible after Partygate and all the political drama. People are still drinking less but it's because pints cost >£6 now in a lot of places, nothing to do with an outbreak of temperance.
  1. ajsnigrutin · 1790697938 · focus · HN ↗
    > People are still drinking less but it's because pints cost >£6 now in a lot of places, nothing to do with an outbreak of temperance.
    Yep, same over here in central europe/balkans.
    Covid came, bars were closed, bars reopened with limited seating, prices went up, tourism restarted, our city center became a tourist trap, prices went up, and higher prices then radiated outside the tourist traps, and well... it doesn't add up anymore.
    Sure, college students and highschoolers can buy cheap wine or booze and drink in parks, even in below freezing weather, but sitting in a bar has become very expensive.

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