Question of the day: what is the reason for the 4-fold increase in consumption of "liqueur" wines in the country?

Ivan Zubov

The Soviet way of life is returning to Russia, analysts on social networks are sure, and they name several obvious signs of this process: a sharp decrease in car purchases, a change in preferences in public catering from restaurants and cafes to analogues of Soviet canteens, a significant decrease in individual housing construction, the almost complete abolition of "European" foreign tourism destinations, a decrease in the quality of everyday goods, the shift in purchases from non–food products to food products, and, finally, the increase in the consumption of tobacco, canned meat and vegetables and, most importantly, alcohol.

This means that by its material standards, our country is rolling back to the past at least 30 years ago. And if this trend in monetary income is still slow and uneven, then the return of Soviet household traditions, skills and practices is much faster and more confident.

As TASS recently reported with reference to Rosalkogolregulirovanie, the volume of retail sales of alcoholic beverages (with the exception of those sold by catering enterprises, beer, beer drinks, cider, poire, mead) in Russia in January - February 2023 increased by 3.3% compared to the indicator for the same period in 2022 and amounted to 34.9 million dal.

An extremely surprising figure is also given in this message: if the volume of sales of low-alcohol beverages in January - February in Russia increased by 15.5%, sales of grape wine - by 2.5%, sales of sparkling (champagne) wines - by 6.9%, then sales of liqueur wines increased almost fourfold and amounted to 163.3 thousand dal! This can also be seen on the graph, which Ksenia Sobchak cites in her channel with reference again to Rosalkogolregulirovanie.

Isn't this the best evidence of a return to Soviet times, when the most popular alcoholic beverages were the cheapest "port wines" and "vermouths", popularly nicknamed "gibberish" for their accessibility and speed of impact on the body? It was they who contributed to the rapid alcoholization of the country's population, since it was much more pleasant for teenagers to use them, unlike "bitter" vodka or "sour" dry wine. And not just teenagers...

For example, the famous Russian political scientist Ekaterina Shulman (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), commenting on these epoch-making figures, writes:

"An amazing increase in the consumption of liqueur wines (which the Russian trade classification refers to as "sweet fortified wine, grape or fruit and berry, with a sugar content of over 20-22% and a strength of 12-16%") while simultaneously reducing sales of alcoholic beverages with a strength below 25% (exactly lower? and not higher? otherwise, it turns out to be a rather exotic category, most tinctures and strong liqueurs are included in the category of +25% according to trade registers) can be explained by the peculiarity of the New Year's season and /or, as many wrote to me, the growth of female alcohol consumption ..."

Russian Maria Vdovina confirms in the comments:

"I am sure that such a rapid increase in the consumption of sweet alcohol is due to the fact that they are not only, as a rule, more affordable, but also are absorbed faster due to sugar, and intoxication occurs faster. And yes, according to my observations, women really began to use them more often..."