Alcohol 1980-2000 (World-Wide Review of Major Events)
The history of alcohol 1980-2000 will be familiar to many people. These alcohol and drinking events occurred in the decades following 1980. Perhaps you remember Billy Beer. Or either watching or hearing about 60 Minutes’ report of the French Paradox. Perhaps you remember when the federal government forced all states to establish .08 as the maximum legal BAC for driving. If so, this might be a sentimental journey.
An overabundance of Shiraz in Australia led to a government program to uproot the vines.1 Ironically, increased popularity of Shiraz has led to its being the most widely planted grape in the country.
1980
Most of what would later become the source of world famous Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand’s Marlborough area, was still mostly covered by sheep-grazing.2
Scotland enacted the Criminal Justice Act of 1980. It bans taking alcoholic beverages into sports grounds and restricted carrying alcohol on public transportation associated with sports.4
1981
The Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce launched Vinexpo. It has become a major event in the wine and spirits industry.5
1982
The European Union (EU) introduced crisis distillation for use in emergencies caused by excess production of wine. But it operated in 22 of the 26 years between its introduction and 2008.6
A boom in French wine began. It was caused by several things. One was an outstanding vintage in Bordeaux. Another was the powerful influence of wine critic Robert Parker. He declared it the “vintage of the century.” A third was a strong U.S. dollar. Several great vintages that decade helped maintain the boom.7
MADD’s founder, Candy Lightner, later left the organization. She complained that it had became increasingly anti-alcohol rather than simply anti-drunk-driving. “It has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I ever wanted or envisioned,” she said. “I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”65
1983
The story of the now-famous Cloudy Bay winery in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It began when David Hohnen first tasted Sauvignon Blanc produced there. “With the first sip, he was stunned. The wine was like nothing he had ever experienced. Its taste exploded in his mouth and demanded attention.” He soon began producing his own at Cloudy Bay.8
A handful of Austria’s 40,000 wine producers artificially sweetened their wine by adding diethylene glycol. News organizations around the world mistook the additive for anti-freeze. So they claimed that Austrian wine was poisoned. In reality, the additive was less toxic than the alcohol in the wine. But the so-called scandal harmed sales.10 It might well be argued that the real scandal was that news media were so careless and irresponsible. They ended up harming many, many innocent people.
1986
On the tenth anniversary of the historic Judgment of Paris wine competition, two replications were conducted with the red wines. (It was assumed that the whites would all be well past their prime.) Those were the French Cullinary Institute and the Wine Spectator blind tastings. In both competitions, the California wines aged better and increased their rankings.11
1987
“Until 1987, it was illegal to age, bottle, and ship port from anywhere but Vila Nova de Gaia. The goal was to prevent the wine from suffering from the ‘Douro burn.’ It’s caused by the high summer temperatures in the Upper douro. Today, air conditioning makes it possible to prevent the burn….”
1988
A bill was passed in the U.S. requiring a health and safety warning on all alcoholic beverage containers.12
Ontario began the Canadian name of origin system called Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA).13
1989
The Beer Orders were passed in the UK. Their purpose was to end the system of “tied houses” operated by large brewers.14
Iceland lifted its ban on the production or importation of beer. It had existed for almost eighty years.15
After the fall of the Soviet Union it began a transition to a market economy. As a result, many vineyards were uprooted and devoted to other crops. This greatly reduced wine production.16
1990s
Kosovo’s wine industry collapsed as Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s. Much of the infrastructure was destroyed by war.17
“[I]n the mid-1990s came roaring out of Bordeaux’s St.-Emilion the garagists. A group of innovative and irreverent winemakers who were not satisfied to just do things the way they had always been done.” They produced very concentrated and deeply flavored in small quantities. They were favored by critic Robert Parker. That got them very high prices.18
“The worldwide area given to grape cultivation declined by 10 percent in the 1990s. That drop-off was almost exclusively in Europe.”19
1990
British Columbia started the Canadian named origin system. It’s called Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA).20
1991
The U.S. Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 was passed. It requires alcohol testing of safety-sensitive transportation employees in aviation, trucking, railroads, mass transit, pipelines and other transportation industries.21
The November 17, 1991, edition of the U.S. TV program, 60 Minutes, was on the French Paradox. The program popularized the health benefits of drinking red wine in moderation. But white wine, beer and spirits have similar health benefits.22
Denmark was prohibited by the European Union from producing wine. That was because of the “European wine lake” of over-production.23
The Loi Evin, which prohibited the advertising of alcoholic beverages, was passed in France.24
1992
Law 164, known as Goria’s law after agricultural minister Giovanni Goria, was enacted. It strengthens Italy’s DOC legislation passed in 1963.25
Thailand lifted its ban on the production of wine.
The US has the highest national minimum legal drinking age in the world49 and the strictest youth drinking laws in the Western World.50
1993
Portugal began creating a number of wine routes to promote wine tourism.26
Finland joined the EU. It had to lift its monopoly on alcohol production, importing and wholesaling. The government monopoly on retailing, Alko, continues to operate.28
The EU signed a trade agreement with Australia giving its wines preferential tariff treatment. This was because Australia agreed to abolish use of generic European wine names such as Burgundy and Champagne.29
1995
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Naltrexone for the treatment of alcoholism.30
1996
Sherry (also called Jerez or Xeres) obtained exclusive legal right in the EU for the use of that name.31
1997
Vietnam outlawed the advertising of alcoholic beverages.32
1998
The popularity and prestige of Penfolds Grange had continued to grow. “The highest price ever paid for a bottle of Grange was $46,080, which went for a six-liter bottle of the 1998 vintage.”33
The Road to Recovery survey was published. It revealed that a substantial proportion of doctors in the U.S. reject the disease theory of alcoholism.34
1999
Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The French president made wine critic Robert Parker a knight in the Legion d’Honneur. That’s France’s highest award. He called him the “most followed and influential critic of French wines in the world.”35 He was and remains the most influential wine critic of wine in the world.
2000
The U.S. Congress required states to establish a maximum blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for operating motor vehicles of 0.08 (80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood). It was under the threatened loss of federal highway funds for failure to comply with the directive.36
Between 1950 and 2000, per capita annual wine consumption fell 60% in France. It dropped 45% in Italy, about one-third in both Portugal and Spain, and about one-quarter in Germany.37
Alcohol 1980-2000 saw continuing change. We can expect even more change in the future. It should be fascinating to watch
Resources
Endnotes
1 Faith, N. Australia’s Liquid Gold. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2002.
2 Nachel. M. Beer for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG, 1996, p. 265.
4 Plant, M. The United kingdom. In: Heath, Dwight B., editor. International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995. Pp. 289-299. P. 292.
5 History and strategy. Vineexpo website. vinexpo.com/en/about-vinexpo/history-and-strategy-19812010/
6 Gately, I. Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol. NY: Gotham, 2008, p. 476.
7 Taber, G. Judgment of Paris. NY: Scribner, 2005, p. 276.