Paul Wagner

Oct 12, 20217 min read

Wine and Politics

Wine has been a part of society since prehistory. And it is still regulated, organized and controlled at many levels of society

Yep--it all comes back to politics--the science of people!

This is among the oldest texts we have. And it concerns wine service. Even then, misleading labels were a problem.

The great philosopher He was found guilty of “impiety” and “corrupting the young”, sentenced to death, and then required to carry out his own execution by consuming a deadly potion of the poisonous plant hemlock. It's still a crime today to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.

The City of Rome promised free bread for all of its inhabitants. But when vineyards started replacing wheat fields, the Emperor outlawed the planting of more vineyards. He needed the bread to keep the people of Rome happy.

The local noble had the power of life and death over his serfs--and that included permission to travel. Those serfs lived and worked on the estate for all of their lives. It was good to be a noble.

The English crusaders were persuaded to help the King of Portugal take Lisbon back from the Moors. And when they were successful, he granted them estates in Portugal in thanks. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship--and a peace treaty between the two nations in the 1300's.

The oldest commercial treaty in the world dates to the 1700's, when England reduced tariffs on imported Portuguese wool and wine...and the Portuguese reciprocated with English manufactured goods.

When Napoleon invaded Portugal in the early 1800s, England sent Colonel Wellesley to the rescue. He won virtually every battle, up to and including Waterloo, where he defeated Napoleon for the final time. By then he was the Duke of Wellington, after whom Beef Wellington in named.

Because these wars created a blockade of France, the English turned to Portugal for wine, which is why so many Port houses have English names now: Graham, Taylor, Sandeman, Smith-Woodhouse, etc.

Following the Napoleonic wars, Great Britain maintained a strict observance of very high tariffs against French wines. The tariffs effectively limited the trade in French wine in Great Britain to only the finest estates--the others simply weren't worth the expense to import into a country that preferred the riper and more alcoholic wines of Portugal, Madeira, and Spain.

But all that changed when Prime Minister Gladstone decided to reduce the steep French wine tariffs by a factor of twenty. Suddenly it was easy and inexpensive to import all levels of French wine--and those that were best positioned for immediate shipment were those of Bordeaux. The inexpensive claret that quickly took advantage of the new laws quickly became known as Gladstone Claret--and was synonymous with cheap, available wine for decades thereafter.

Our founding fathers were big fans of wine. Thomas Jefferson travelled the wine regions of France extensively, and ordered cases and cases of wine for his cellar. He even ordered additional cases for George Washington to use in his role as President of the country. And Jefferson delayed the construction of the White House because he noted that the size of the wine cellar in the plans was too small.

At the Constitutional Convention (above) the bar bill averaged a bottle of Madeira per person. One wonders if Congress today couldn't get more done if they drank like that together.

Madeira was a key element in the slave trade, between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It was highly valued, particularly among those who were more likely to be involved in that trade. Today, some of the largest collections of rare Madeiras are in cities such at Charleston South Carolina--where some of the vintages date back to the 1700s.

Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages. The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drink among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe, was spreading.

Bear in mind that men worked 60-80 hours a week, and were paid in cash at the end of the week. Many factories actually owned bars outside the factory gates, where they hoped to recoup a significant portion of the payroll each week.

The prohibition movement's strength grew, especially after the formation of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. The League, and other organizations that supported prohibition such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, soon began to succeed in enacting local prohibition laws. Eventually the prohibition campaign was a national effort.

Standing at nearly 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, Carry Amelia Moore Nation, Carrie Nation, as she came to be known, cut an imposing figure. Wielding a hatchet, she was downright frightful. In 1900, the target of Nation's wrath was alcoholic drink. Nation, who described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what he doesn't like," felt divinely ordained to forcefully promote temperance.

A nation can not rise higher than the mothers. Liberty is the largest privilege to do that which is right, and the smallest to do that which is wrong. Vote for a principle which will make it a crime to manufacture, barter, sell or give away that which makes three-fourths of all the crime and murders thousands every year, and the suffering of the women and children that can not be told. Vote for our prohibition president and God will bless you. Pray for me that I may finish my course with joy, the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.

CARRY A. NATION, Your Loving Home Defender.

The campaign for Prohibition was powerful and emotional. Because many of the breweries were owned by German Americans, they were accused of trying to corrupt the youth of America during World War I...when the enemy was Germany.

And in the South, a horrifically racist campaign urged white voters to support Prohibition as a way of limiting Black Americans' access to alcohol--with the often overtly stated goal of keeping the Black population from getting "too excited," and keeping white women safe.

But while the states ratified the 18th Amendment, not budget was provided for enforcement. Bootlegging became a national pastime, and organized crime quickly became the key player.

Mother's in the kitchen washing out the jugs,

Sister's in the pantry bottling the suds,

Father's in the cellar mixin' up the hops,

Johnny's on the front porch watchin' for the cops.

--Prohibition song

In the end, it failed miserably, as noted in this Senate testimony:

The following exchange occured between him and Russell Lee Post, a student at Yale University.

Senator Reed of Missouri. What are the facts with reference to the ability of students to obtain liquor?

Mr. Post. Why, it is obtainable, sir; the greater the attempts at enforcement the stronger the sentiment against it.

Senator Reed of Missouri. Do bootleggers ply their trade among the students?

Mr. Post. Well, it is the reverse; the students go to the bootleggers.

Senator Reed of Missouri. The students go to the bootleggers?

Mr. Post. Yes; they do not enter the university campus.

Senator Reed of Missouri. Is there any difficulty of any student of ordinary intelligence--and I presume they are all that at Yale University--getting all the whisky he wants to buy, or alleged whisky at least?

Mr. Post. No, sir.

Senator Reed of Missouri. Is this liquor drunk on the campus or in the quarters of the students?

Mr. Post. Yes, sir.

Senator Reed of Missouri And is it drunk elsewhere?

Mr. Post. Yes, sir.

Senator Reed of Missouri. That is all.

And so it was repealed. National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)--the "noble experiment"--was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure.

For more in-depth coverage of Prohibition, check out these sources:

Last Call; an excellent book on Prohibition by Daniel Okrent.

Prohibition; an excellent PBS series based on the book

And these websites:

>> From Time Warner: Prohibition

>> From the Library of Congress: Prohibition

The lessons of Prohibition remain important today. They apply not only to the debate over the war on drugs but also to the mounting efforts to drastically reduce access to alcohol and tobacco and to such issues as censorship and bans on insider trading, abortion, and gambling.

To achieve repeal, the 21st Amendment included clauses to allow each state to regulate alcohol as it saw fit---the only way to get 755 of the states to ratify it.

And to limit organized crime's involvement, the complicated three-tier system was created:

>> A license to produce alcohol

>> A license to distribute it

>> A license to sell it to consumers.

You cannot own more than one of these licenses, and you cannot own ANY license with a felony conviction.

In Europe, they were fighting another battle: protecting those regional wines.

This gave rise to the appellation system which is still widely in use around the world.

And even included careful mapping of the regions to exclude unworthy wines. Note that this important map in Portugal was drawn by an Englishman...

Finally, partly in response to the ravages of Phylloxera, they created a whole new series of laws concerning both appellation...

And purity. As winemakers attempted to manage the vastly decreased yields in their vineyards, the wines were often adulterated. And laws were passed to prohibit the addition of water, sugar, etc.

Phylloxera!