Archive for the ‘Culture and Wine’ Category
Proponents of increasing the State of Oregon’s alcohol taxes in a comically excessive way are becoming more creative and more faithless in their arguments for increasing the state taxes in an effort to fight alcohol dependency. As a reminder, earlier in the year Oregon State Representatives Tawna Sanchez sponsored House Bill 3296. If passed, the bill would have increased the excise taxes on beer and cider in Oregon from $2.60 per barrel (31 gallons) to $72.60 per barrel. The increase…
The wine and alcohol industries are unique. They operate within a highly regulated meliu that other industries would find jarring and alien. As a result, it’s often the case that the controversies that surround alcohol are very specific to the industry. The shoe industry or the snack food industry would, for example, find no context for understanding a ban on their products being shipped across state lines, whereas within the alcohol industry such restrictions are common place. But sometimes, the…
What if drinking wine, even lots of it, didn’t get you drunk? Why consider this…? “Alcohol goes to your head and causes drunken behaviour through the breakdown of chemicals produced in the brain, a new study reveals. The finding turns previous theories that it was linked to the liver upside down, and scientists believe it holds the key to combating binge drinking and alcoholism. Researchers from National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism tested the impact of alcohol on chemicals…
I spent a good two and a half hours yesterday speaking to a nice sized collection of wine industry members about the Three-Tier System on the newish social media platform Clubhouse. In the Clubhouse room “The Business of Booze”, created and moderated by Bulgarian wine importer Robert Hayk of G & B Importers, upwards of 70 or so producers, importers, communicators, retailers and media undertook an examination of the predominant system of alcohol regulation in the United States. It was…
After 30 years of work in a particular industry, one comes across some pretty interesting and titillating information. You witness and hear about a variety of incidents and circumstances that would provoke headshaking, surprise, shock and awe. The wine industry is no different. After years of working in this industry, I love I could relate the stories of: -The Sonoma winery owner who remains a gay man but still hides it by employing a strategy of dating an array of…
