"Play More Golf" Is Rarely the Correct Answer to Wine's and Life's Challenges

The challenges faced by wine require a real response that I see coming

“Daddy, what would you do if you couldn’t drink wine any more?” I don’t drink all that much wine to begin with so I told my kid, “Well, HG, I’d probably just drink something else.” Seeing from my easy response that his question didn’t present quite the conundrum he’d thought it would, HG rephrased: “No, what would you do if you couldn’t write about wine and people drinking wine any more?”

With that question, I understood what the boy was getting at. He wasn’t wondering about any alcohol dependence I might have. He was thinking about the conversation he overheard me having with his grandfather about the anti-alcohol movement and other headwinds the wine industry is facing. He heard me lazily proclaim that “a lot of folks are gonna be out of a job and out of a business.”

I’m learning that at 10 years old, in that space between 4th grade and 5th grade, when boys are just realizing that their fathers don’t know everything and when they think they instead might just possess all the necessary wisdom to rule the world but need to confirm of this by asking opened ended questions to which they have what are of course the best answers, some of our interactions have begun to get pretty weird. I’ve devised a stock answer to HG’s off-the-cuff and often testing questions.

“Dad, what would you do if aliens landed in our backyard?”

“Probably play more golf….”

“Dad, what would you do if you found a genie?”

“Probably play more golf…”

“Dad, what would you do if Elon Musk gave you a billion dollars?”

“Probably play more golf…”

Generally, this flippant response of mine is enough for him to do what he always planned to do in the first place: to happily proclaim I’m wrong (really?) and tell me exactly what the right course of action should be. (For what it’s worth, I’m told the correct response to these situations is 1) find out if they are friendly by offering them something of value like Pokemon Cards, 2) Wish for more genies, and 3) buy tickets to all of Messi’s InterMiami soccer games.)

But when HG rephrased and asked what I would do if I could not write about wine and people drinking wine anymore, I realized it wasn’t one of those questions meant to allow him to explain how the world works or what the proper response was to surprising situations. It was a question genuinely derived from a sense of dread, from a sense of worry that bubbled up when he heard me earnestly describing the dislocation that could occur in the world where I work.

Ironically, this was a question to which “Play more golf” was actually the correct answer. But it wasn’t the answer he needed to hear.

It’s not just 10-year-old boys who need reassurance and practical plans of action in the face of existential problems. Rational and workable plans to deploy in the face of change and dislocation are salves that allow us to face such situations. It’s easy to forget this and focus on describing the problem and its consequences. This is a mistake I’ve made as I’ve focused on the problems of the anti-alcohol movement, the impact on wine from changing drinking patterns, and the economic difficulties for wine that come with long-term inflation.

It’s true that current social and economic forces will cause people I know and work with to lose their jobs and possessions. Individuals need to prepare for this possibility, if only for their own or their dependent’s sake. But it’s equally important for the wine industry as a whole to face these problems with plans that go beyond the intention to play more golf.

A systemic slowdown in wine sales means an oversupply of wine and wine brands that consumers can’t and won’t support. The obvious and rational response is to get about reworking the outlines of the wine industry to make its smaller economic footprint easier for participants to navigate and thrive within. To begin with, this means cutting the regulatory fat.

Today’s wine industry is regulated in a way that aims to prevent the return of the pre-Prohibition “Tied House”. That regulatory focus must end and with it the specific laws that constrict or direct how wine is sold and distributed. Producers, importers, and retailers will need far greater freedom to work with each other in creative and more connected ways than currently is allowed. The emphasis on deferring to middlemen wholesalers to prevent these connections will have to end.

The other rational and obvious response to a systemic slowdown in wine sales is for the industry to collectively find a way to communicate the virtue inherent in wine consumption. Here “collective action” doesn’t necessarily mean a promotional campaign funded by the entire industry—though that would be productive. More fundamentally it means generating a renewed confidence among members of the wine industry that what they make and sell is of real benefit to those that buy it.

Once you possess the confidence that your work is socially beneficial, the way you talk about it changes dramatically. The way you position wine provides answers to people’s problems. The way you present it wraps it in the genuine glow of a heartfelt gift. Proceeding to confront a shrinking market for wine with this kind of attitude forms the basis for real growth and opens opportunities unpersued in boom times.

Finally, the rational and obvious response to a slowdown in wine sales means pivoting to position wine as the proper response to the very conditions that have caused the formation of the winds that buffet it. If economic times are tough for many and if our society is leaning into health and wellness due to the traumatic experience of the pandemic and if powerful forces believe and say wine = cigarettes, then we must remind ourselves and others that wine, its source, and its consumption is a restorative oasis.

This means returning our own and our customer’s mindset to one that views the vineyard and the winery as a spiritual source of real creation. It means framing the glass of wine in front of us as an authentic connection with culture and history. It means truly embracing the idea that the responsible consumption of wine is a simple path to calm and to the momentary resets that we all occasionally need.

The headwinds afflicting wine that currently exist are real. They will cause real dislocation. They will cause dismay and problems for those who work in, rely on, and love the wine industry. But we must remember that the problems can’t be our primary focus. Hope built on action is the rational and obvious next step after the problems are identified. And “play more golf” can’t be the flippant response we give to those who have justified worries over what comes next.

Eventually, my boy, HG, will learn that the proper response to aliens landing in your backyard is not to gift them Pokemon cards but to raise your deflector shields, that the best response to finding a genie is to take the money and run, and that being gifted a billion dollars by Elon Musk doesn’t mean buying tickets to all the InterMiami games but rather buying the team. All of that is to say that I’m confident one day he’ll grow up and out of his 10-year-old mind and learn that experience and Star Trek provides us with the wisdom we need to answer life’s tough questions.

I’m confident too that the wine industry is already moving into the stage of doing the rational, obvious, and necessary things to answer this moment.