Yellowstone and Kevin Costner Provide the Answers to Wine's Woes

Why pop culture is the answer to revitalizing wine's fortunes

I recently finished re-watching Yellowstone, the Kevin Costner-led ode to cowboys set in Montana. The beautifully filmed series, while an obvious remake of The Godfather set on a ranch, has a very instructive portrayal of alcohol use of which the wine industry might want to take note.

The series examines the fictional Dutton family. For 150 years the Duttons have accumulated land and raised cattle in the Yellowstone Valley of Montana. From the moment the family settled in the region in the 1870s the challenge has been to keep the land from those that wanted to take it from them. Yellowstone depicts patriarch John Dutton’s 21st-century take-no-prisoners, do-what-is-necessary approach to keep his sprawling ranch out of the hands of resentful native American tribes and resort-building corporate raiders so that he might pass on the legacy and the land to his children and grandchildren.

Over the five seasons of Yellowstone, the portrayal of the consumption and use of beer, wine, and spirits is on prominent display. Each type of alcohol is portrayed in very specific ways that not only help advance the plot but also define the unique meaning of beer, wine, and spirits.

Throughout the series, spirits (primarily whiskey and vodka) are portrayed as a crutch. For example, Beth Dutton—the only daughter of John—is the cruel, wicked, bitter, and violent protector of both her father and his Yellowstone Ranch. An anti-hero plagued since her youth for having been blamed for her mother’s death, Beth is a high-functioning drunk who cannot get through her busy days without vodka. Her drinking is portrayed as a necessity to get her through the day and her drinking often begins before the sun comes, continues through the day, and is a necessity to put her down at night.

Meanwhile, whisky is portrayed as the only drink of choice and the go-to tool when the going gets tough. During the countless moments in the series when something goes wrong for Kevin Costner’s John Dutton, a failure befalls him, or when bad news arrives, the Patriarch reaches for whiskey as a salve; as a way to cope.

Then there is beer. Beer is the drink of the Yellowstone Ranch’s cowboys, the good old boys (and girls) who do the dirty and glamourous work of “cowboying” with their sturdy horses, chaps, hats, and tough demeanors. The cowboys work hard, play hard and when it’s all done, they drink beer in the bunkhouse.

In Yellowstone, beer is the working man’s reward for a long day on the range among the cows. While the cowboys might throw back a shot of whiskey in a bar before they launch into a chair-throwing, table-breaking brawl, they always come back to beer. In those few moments when laughing and camaraderie are on display in Yellowstone, there is beer being guzzled and it’s almost always the cowboys who are doing the guzzling.

Then there is wine. A prominent setting in Yellowstone is the family dinner table at the Dutton’s sprawling ranch house where, throughout the series, John is constantly attempting to bring his dysfunctional family together around a meal to prove to himself (and them) that there is nothing unusual about their circumstances. Wine is always on the table at the family dinner. Always.

Dutton’s attempt to bring civility and normality to his family—something that is never achieved through the series despite his constant attempts—is always pursued at the dinner table and always with wine on that table. Wine is the civilizing beverage. Unlike the portrayal of spirits and beer, it is always consumed with food on hand. Wine is never sought out or used when trouble ensues, when nerves need to be calmed or when the hard work of the day is over. Wine is the omnipresent beverage of choice when propriety, custom, calm, and normality are sought out.

Yellowstone’s portrayal of alcohol is born of well-established tropes that themselves are born of real truths about the substance of different types of alcohol and the way they have and are used in America’s past and present. Beer, wine, and spirits are used to explain characters, advance plots, foreshadow events, and establish the persona of characters. Alcohol’s successful use in doing these things is only possible because the viewer intuitively understands the different meanings, tropes, and histories of specific types of alcohol.

That wine is used to portray civility, community, family, and propriety in Yellowstone is something the wine industry should take to heart. The industry should note that in using wine to depict these values snobbery is not a factor. The Duttons aren’t snobs or elitists. They are a broken clan seeking a path to normality and wine is a tool toward that end.

This is a fantastic message for the wine industry to advance. But no matter how consistently and successfully the industry and its disparate parts might work to position (or continue to position) wine as the beverage of moderation, community, and civility, nothing will more successfully advance that portrayal than popular culture can.

Like it or not, pop culture plays an outsized role (certainly a larger role than wine industry marketing efforts) in defining the meaning, proper use, and popularity of the beverage in American society. While Tik Tok influencers swigging Pinot Grigio and Rose around swimming pools and in glamourous locations may have a role to play in helping to advance wine’s prominence, it’s the showrunners, writers, producers, and directors of series and movies that can put wine on the kind of pedestal it needs to be on if its use is to increase. It is the singers, the performers, and the celebrities who dominate our culture that can play the most impactful role in elevating the desirability of wine as a drink of choice.

Someone devise a plan to make wine’s use and enjoyment more prominent in pop culture and I’ll show you the savior of the industry.

There can be no getting away from the media and pop culture portraying alcohol as the destroyer of men because it can be. But the more frequently wine is depicted in popular culture as the beverage of choice of heroes, families, gatherings, protectors, and normality, the more likely we are to see society treat wine that way since these are all aspirational qualities, people, and circumstances.

This is not a matter of product placement. The business of product placement is the business of promoting a brand, not a category. There is no business or association charged with promoting wine by paying to place it in movies and shows. It is a matter of convincing and persuading creative types that wine is a proper and effective vessel for the portrayal of positive aspiration and success.

When I figure out how this can be accomplished, I’ll let you know.