Wine Is Technically a Food…

…at least According to a 1960s Pamphlet.

We recently stumbled upon a slim green booklet with the confident title Uses of Wine in Medical Practice, published by the “Wine Advisory Board” in San Francisco. Now, the name sounds reassuringly official, exactly the sort of body one imagines conducting neutral research in a lab somewhere. In reality, research shows, that it was an industry-funded marketing body created to promote California wine. Which, to be fair, is a classic strategy: give something a respectable-sounding board, wrap the message in scientific language, and suddenly what might otherwise look like advertising begins to feel like advice.

The booklet was apparently distributed to physicians, as it proudly states on the cover: “For Distribution Only to the Medical Profession.”, which means that at some point in the mid-20th century, doctors received this professional literature, calmly explaining that wine might have benefits for emotional tension, nutrition, and sleep. One imagines a general practitioner in 1962 leafing through it between patients and advising the next stressed person who walks in to just sit back and have a glass of wine once they get home :-)

The pamphlet’s tone is clinical. It discusses wine not as a party guest but as if it were a pharmaceutical compound that simply happened to come in a bottle with a cork. According to the text, moderate quantities of wine could reduce emotional tension and help the nervous system relax (which… pssst… we have to agree to some point ;-)) - Dessert wine before bedtime even makes an appearance as a possible aid to sleep.

In other words: what your Italian grandmother may have been saying for decades apparently once had a bibliography.

The booklet also ventures into nutrition, explaining that wine was viewed as technically a food and a source of energy. It even mentions vitamins and minerals - Reading this today though feels a bit like discovering a vintage advertisement where cigarettes were recommended for digestion ;-)

PS: Skál from Bókin ;-)