‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

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

389 points · 987 comments · randycupertino

  1. alexandre_m · · focus · HN ↗
    > while young people are drinking less alcohol due to health and financial concerns

    My observation is that gen-z spends less time socializing in real life, and drinking remains a social habit for the most part at a younger age. While they drink less, cannabis, vaping and psychedelics are on the rise.

    It's a nice claim to say they are more responsible, but it tells an incomplete story.

    1. BLKNSLVR · · focus · HN ↗
      My observation is that the young people who do drink aren't going for beers and wines, which are tastes that can take time to acquire, they're going for sweet liquors and premix cans of fizz.

      Getting Gen-z to even get close enough to the glass to smell a nice red is a challenge. And when they do, they seem to recoil rapidly.

      Anecdata only.

      1. willtemperley · · focus · HN ↗
        I'm not surprised.

        There's untold levels of chemicals in wine. Organic wine is BS in Europe, organic vineyards actually use more chemicals like giant quantities of copper sulphate. The US is actually a lot better than Europe in this regard.

        Source: My father owned a vineyard in France before he keeled over with a subarachnoid haematoma after drinking 3 glasses of Rose at lunchtime.

        1. ricardobayes · · focus · HN ↗
          My grandfather used to burn sulphur strips to clean the glass demijohns. I guess this is why most wine carry a sulphate allergy label these days. Apart from this, I don't recall any other "chemical" being used, other than sugar.

          Of course, this was decades ago and today would be called "artisanal" wine making.

          1. ButlerianJihad · · focus · HN ↗
            I hope wines don't contain enough sulfates to trigger "allergies" because it would actually be toxic.

            Sulfites and sulfates are very different, though related, and the sulfites are the things in question that have required warning labels.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.