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Vodka No Less Beneficial to Your Health Than Wine; Champagne Sales Are Way Up This Year

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“Luckily, I keep a scotch flask and a wine flask on me at all times.”

• Good news, boozehounds: Yet another study on the benefits of alcohol consumption has concluded that “moderate” drinking of any kind is just as beneficial to lengthening your life as drinking wine. Any earlier evidence that wine was more beneficial than, say, bourbon, appears to only be due to the fact that wine drinkers tend to be generally healthier to begin with. [NYT]

• Meanwhile, the U.K. is battling against alcohol abuse by trying to raise the price of booze at supermarkets and bulk sellers to be more inline with bar/restaurant prices. [BBC]

• Wine blogger W. Blake Gray calls this “bubbly’s worst week,” mostly because people who don’t appreciate Champagne and sparkling wine go out and buy crap because they don’t know any better. [Gray Market Report]

• But, according to something called the Champagne Bureau (no joke), Champagne sales are up this year, particularly among better bottles in the $30 to $50 price point. [AP/SiLive]

“Luckily, I keep a scotch flask and a wine flask on me at all times.”

• Unsurprisingly, the most popular post on Wine Spectator’s website this year was a slideshow of photos of Austrian female winemakers in lingerie. [Wine Spectator]

• A U.K. wine seller cites the exorbitant pricing of the 2010 Bordeaux vintage as causing the top châteaux to lose their “loyal bread and butter customer,” and saying they “pushed it too far” this time. [Drinks Business]

• Those battling Foppiano heirs we mentioned last week? Both siblings are stepping down as trustees, and an independent third party with wine industry experience will be stepping in to manage the winery. [Wine Spectator]

• The Times’ Eric Asimov recounts this year of “acquired tastes” and “spectacular wines” that he’s had, including an enviable evening when he tasted four different grand cru burgundies from 1929. Nice work if you can get it. [NYT]

Vodka No Less Beneficial to Your Health Than Wine; Champagne Sales Are Way Up