Keep calm. Keep pouring

From Shaman’s Rock

By Jim Poling Sr.

I learned this week that the world has too much wine. We are fermenting more grape juice than we are drinking.

Australian wineries are reported to be sitting on more than 256 million unsold cases of wine—more than two years of inventory. And, the European Union has paid France $172 million to destroy more than 80 million gallons of excess wine. It will be distilled into ethanol that can be used in perfumes, cleaning products and hand sanitizers.

There are similar stories from most of the world’s wine producing areas, British Columbia and Ontario included.

Far too much wine and fewer people drinking it. I’ve been drinking my share to help restore a balance, but it’s not been enough. I’m going to try harder.

Wine drinking world-wide declined six per cent between 2017 and 2022. In Canada, wine sales have declined at their fastest pace in more than a decade. They fell by four per cent in 2021/2022, the largest decrease since Statistics Canada began tracking alcohol sales in 1949.

Falling wine sales have led wine producers around the world to cut production, some drastically. Extreme weather and changing drinking patterns are cited as the main reasons for decreased production and falling sales. Many producers have deliberately cut back on vineyard sizes, while others have seen wild weather reduce their crop sizes. 

British Columbia has reported huge crop losses resulting from summer droughts, fall flooding and extreme winter cold and snowfalls during the last couple of years. Provincial grape growers say extreme weather has caused a 54-per-cent reduction in grape and wine production for the 2023 vintage.

But the other big factor is that people are changing their drinking habits. Inflation has increased wine prices, forcing some drinkers to go to lower-priced drinks such as beer.

Wine is losing favour among the world’s younger people. Many younger wine drinkers are not drinking red wines, preferring sparkling wines like whites and roses. There also is a growing preference for ciders and coolers.

Polls indicate, however, that younger people in general are rethinking any alcohol use. One poll shows that more than one-third of respondents 18 to 35 said they were drinking too much alcohol and said it has negative effects on their health.

More than half of those young people responding to the poll said they have cut back on alcohol consumption, many noting they have participated in alcohol cutbacks such as ‘Dry February.’ 

They have found an easy alternative in marijuana. Canadian alcohol sales have fallen while recreational drug sales have boomed since the federal government legalized cannabis five years ago.

Statistics Canada reports cannabis sales have increased annually since legalization, with Canadian spending $4.7 billion on the recreational drug in 2022/2023. That’s a $0.6 billion jump from the previous year.

StatsCan also reports that cannabis spending now averages $150 a year for every Canadian of legal age. 

Whether wine drinking will continue to fall is anyone’s guess. The wine industry says sales of premium wines are increasing, but that seems to be a reflection of the growing divide between rich and poor Canadians.

Canadians with money will buy more expensive cars, bigger houses and premium wines. Those without will continue to cut back on all goods they find too expensive – wine included.

Wine prices were expected to increase significantly next month when the feds planned to boost the alcohol excise tax by almost five per cent. However, Ottawa has backed off that increase and has said the excise tax will remain capped at a two-per-cent increase for two years.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation welcomed this year’s reduced tax boost but said alcohol should not be taxed at all. It has said that taxes already account for roughly 65 percent of the price of wine. 

“Canadians are struggling with inflation and the last thing we need is the feds making it more expensive to enjoy a cold one at the end of a long work week,” Franco Terrazzano, a federation director has said.  “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be trying to make life more affordable and that means scrapping his alcohol tax hikes.”

I’ll drink to that!

 

Many folks are cheering the recent arrival of snow that has been missing for most of this unusual winter.

Lack of snow in October, November and December has been tough on businesses that rely on winter activity spending. Ski hills, snowmobile services, restaurants, confectionary and grocery stores and others all have been hurt by the snowless first half of winter.

Some regional tourism officials estimate financial losses in the millions of dollars because of the lack of snow. So, the recent snowfalls finally have given them reason to cheer.

Plants and animals can’t cheer, but if they could their voices would be loud and happy.

We humans often see winter as a time pretty much devoid of life. Bears and some other animals are hibernating; many birds have gone south. However, unseen by us are life activities beneath the snow. Life that is preserved by the snow.

A snow pack of just a few inches can stabilize soil temperatures, providing just enough warmth to keep snakes, bugs and small animals like voles and mice from freezing. The snow also gives them some protection from predators.

Some plants continue to be active beneath the winter snow. It insulates their root systems from extreme cold, while mosses, fungi and even flowers continue to function and even germinate beneath the snow. 

Without snow, life becomes more difficult for animals that don’t hibernate or go south.

The lynx with its snowshoe-like paws has a harder time pursuing prey. Others, like some hares whose coats turn white when snow arrives, are more exposed to predators.

Wolverines, which have been making a bit of a comeback in Ontario, do not reproduce well in the absence of snow. Snow cover in areas where they reproduce has been diminishing. 

Some Rocky Mountain regions are said to have two fewer weeks of snow cover than 50 years ago. One study has found that the Alps in Europe could lose as much as 70 per cent of its snow cover by 2100.

These changes are increasing scientific interest in winter ecology, the study of relationships between living things and their winter environment, Scientists studying climate change are documenting how less snow is creating changes in the global environment.

They are concerned that a warming planet with less snow and ice is forcing some plants and animals to move from regions they have occupied for centuries. For instance, areas with less annual snow melt could become unsuitable for growing food. Animals like the wolverine could abandon areas where less snow has reduced their ability to survive and reproduce.

Researchers are finding that earlier spring melting, and less of it, might be a reason why we are seeing more severe forest wildfires. Some research has found that landscapes burned by wildfires had less water from snowmelt than unburned areas. And, snow melted nine days earlier in burned areas compared with unburned areas.

There is a lot of talk and worry about melting glaciers, but the effects of disappearing glaciers are tiny compared to shrinking snow packs. Snow holds huge amounts of moisture that is released slowly as temperatures rise, nourishing plants as they need it.

Melting snow also becomes a natural reservoir system providing water for human communities. For instance, one-third of the water used by California cities and farmland comes from melted snowpacks.

Perhaps the most important factor of snow is that it helps regulate the temperature of an increasingly warming planet. 

Snow is highly reflective, sending the sun’s radiation back into the atmosphere instead of into the ground where it increases the earth’s temperature.

Scientists say that new snow cover can reflect up to 90 per cent of the sun’s radiation back into the atmosphere. Sea ice reflects only roughly 60 per cent back to the sky, land without snow 10 to 20 percent and open ocean a mere six per cent.

So like it or hate it, winter’s snow is a critically important part of our world. We can live without the inconveniences it brings, and even the pleasures of winter recreations. But we cannot live without the water it provides to maintain our health and grow the food we need to survive.