Wine is Not the Devil

What the evidence actually says about moderate wine, the Mediterranean table, and why a glass with dinner is not the same as a weekend bender.

Pick up almost any newspaper lately and you’d think a glass of wine with dinner is basically a taped-up crime scene.

Suddenly, wine is being talked about like it’s lurking in the shadows wearing a tiny villain cape. New York City’s health department even launched a new anti-alcohol campaign called “Buzzkill,” (seriously?), warning that drinking alcohol increases cancer risk. Of course, that's a concern, and it deserves to be taken seriously.

But - here’s my problem with the current conversation: it has become very loud, very certain, and not nearly curious enough.

Because when it comes to wine, context matters.

When consumed in moderation, especially with meals as part of a Mediterranean lifestyle, wine has been the subject of study for decades. The evidence is not a marketing slogan. It is not a permission slip to drink more. But it is also not the horror story the loudest voices seem determined to tell.

The most honest summary is this: people who drink wine moderately, particularly with food and as part of a lifestyle that includes vegetables, olive oil, fish, nuts, movement, and actual human connection, often show better heart-health and longevity patterns than heavy drinkers. Some studies also find better outcomes compared with people who never drink at all.

That does not mean wine is medicine, but it also does not mean wine is the devil, despite the current mood making it feel so evil. There is a difference, and the difference matters.

Here’s where things get inconvenient for the “wine is bad” crowd.

The Copenhagen City Heart Study followed thousands of Danish adults and compared wine, beer, and spirits. Wine drinkers stood out. The researchers found that low-to-moderate wine intake was associated with lower mortality from cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and other causes, while beer and spirits did not show the same pattern.

The National Academies’ review of alcohol and health, requested by Congress to help inform the next U.S. Dietary Guidelines process, found that moderate alcohol consumption was associated with lower all-cause mortality compared with never drinking. The report itself does not make dietary recommendations, which is important, but it does review the evidence seriously.

A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis focused specifically on wine found lower pooled risks for coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular mortality among wine consumers. Again, this is not “drink wine and become immortal.” It is evidence that moderate wine consumption, especially in the right context, does not fit neatly into the current panic narrative.

Then there is PREDIMED, the landmark Spanish trial on the Mediterranean diet. It found that a Mediterranean eating pattern supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced major cardiovascular events compared with a low-fat control diet.

Wine is not the star of that study, but it belongs to the same cultural table: olive oil, vegetables, beans, fish, nuts, movement, and meals that are meant to be enjoyed, not inhaled over your kitchen sink.

More recently, a 2026 analysis from the Italian Moli-sani cohort reported that moderate wine consumption, when defined within a Mediterranean dietary pattern, was associated with slower biological aging in men. The signal was not as clear in women, and the study was observational, so it cannot prove cause and effect. But it adds to a larger body of work pointing in the same general direction: wine looks very different when it is part of a meal, not a mission.

The pattern matters more than the pour.

Notice what these studies are actually describing? They're not talking about polishing off a bottle while watching reality TV and stress-eating a sleeve or two of Ritz crackers. They're not talking about binge drinking, and they are certainly not talking about using wine as a coping mechanism, a sleep aid, or an entire personality.

They ARE talking about small to moderate amounts of wine, enjoyed slowly, with food, spread across the week, in the context of an actual life.

A life with vegetables.

A life with walking.

A life with friends at the table.

A life where wine is part of the meal, not the whole event.

That distinction seems to be getting lost.

A 2022 study on Mediterranean alcohol-drinking patterns found that a pattern including moderate red wine with meals, spread throughout the week, and avoiding binge drinking was associated with lower all-cause mortality. That's a very different story from “all alcohol is the same, all the time, in every context.”

The Blue Zones, those often-discussed pockets of long-lived people in places like Sardinia and Ikaria, are frequently brought into the wine conversation. But the truth is more interesting than “they drink wine, so wine is magic.”

In those communities, a small glass of local wine sits inside a much bigger lifestyle: plant-forward food, daily movement, social ties, purpose, and slower meals. Wine is part of a ritual. It is not a supplement. It is not a hack. It is not something you chug while answering emails.

And frankly, that may be the point.

This is also why the recent push for UNESCO recognition matters. As Forbes reported in May 2026, wine leaders are making the case that wine is not merely an alcoholic beverage, but part of a much larger cultural tradition tied to agriculture, place, food, ritual, hospitality, and shared tables. That matters because once wine is reduced to nothing more than “alcohol,” the conversation loses the very context that makes moderate wine at dinner different from drinking without food, without limits, and without culture.

UNESCO recognition would not make wine “healthy,” of course. But it would acknowledge something the Mediterranean table has understood for centuries: wine has long been part of how people gather, eat, celebrate, remember, and belong.

A glass of wine with dinner, shared with people you love, inside a life that includes sleep, movement, food that grew from the ground, and some kind of meaning, is not the same thing as binge drinking on a Saturday night.

The research has never confused the two, and our public conversation should not either.

A glass of wine with dinner isn't what's cutting American lives short. It's the whole picture: sitting alone, eating ultra-processed foods (that beige junk food from the take-out windows we all know), sitting and scrolling endlessly, not moving our bodies, skimping on sleep, and then binge-drinking on the weekends -- that's a whole different story.

And yet, somehow, wine with dinner has become the villain.

How convenient.

Let's be clear: wine isn't a miracle cure, a magical medicine, or, despite what you might be hearing, it's not the little red guy with a trident and a tail.

But when you treat wine with respect, pour a glass alongside a good meal, and share it with people whose company you actually enjoy, wine remains what it has always been: one of life's oldest and most wonderfully human pleasures.

Maybe the problem was never the glass of wine at dinner.

Maybe the problem was forgetting how to sit down and enjoy it.

Sources

• NYC Health Department, “NYC Health Department Launches Campaign To Reduce Alcohol-Related Cancers,” May 4, 2026.

• Grønbæk et al., “Mortality associated with moderate intakes of wine, beer, or spirits,” BMJ, 1995.

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Review of Evidence on Alcohol and Health, 2025.

• Lucerón-Lucas-Torres et al., “Association between Wine Consumption with Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Nutrients, 2023.

• Estruch et al., “Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts,” New England Journal of Medicine, 2018.

• Barbería-Latasa et al., “Mediterranean Alcohol-Drinking Patterns and All-Cause Mortality in Women More Than 55 Years Old and Men More Than 50 Years Old in the SUN Cohort,” Nutrients, 2022.

• Esposito et al., “Moderate Wine Consumption, Defined by the Mediterranean Diet, Is Associated With Delayed Biological Aging in Men From the Moli-sani Study,” International Journal of Public Health, 2026.

• Michelle Williams, “Wine Is Fighting For Its Cultural Life. UNESCO May Be Its Best Defense,” Forbes, May 6, 2026.