lecture to the Australasian Trained Nurses Association on
“The Various Wines Used in Sickness and Convalescence”.
As well as recommending Champagne as a stimulant in
cases of weak heart action, and the moderate use of Burgundy
for rheumatoid arthritis, Fiaschi told the nurses that claret was
a “valuable aid to digestion... In this climate, claret is especially
useful on hot days, when the stomach becomes languid and
unable to digest the amount of food required to keep up the
nerve strain entailed in the struggle of civilised life. It tones
both the stomach and the heart.”
With this kind of clinical endorsement, it’s no surprise
that so many wineries at the time sold their products on their
restorative merits: Hans Irvine’s Sparkling Burgundy from
Great Western in Victoria was just one of many wine brands
“recommended for invalids”, and advertising for Penfolds
Hospital Brandy featured a nurse, dressed in angelic white,
cradling a bottle like it’s holy water.
As the 20th century wore on, drinks producers
moved away from concentrating on the individual
benefits of alcohol consumption and towards more
generic lifestyle attributes: beer ads featured fit
young men engaged in healthy outdoors activities
like surfing or rugby; wine ads emphasised the
pleasures of the social occasion, featuring couples
enjoying a romantic dinner, or groups of friends
at a party.
In recent years, though, an obsession with
individual health and wellness has permeated
many aspects of everyday life, and booze producers
are responding.
Some are changing their production methods
to appeal to a more health-conscious generation.
In these pages last year, for example, I profiled a bunch of
small-scale winemakers picking their grapes earlier to produce
lighter, fresher red wines sitting at just 12 per cent alcohol or
less. Meanwhile, at the other end of the booze industry spectrum,
a surprising number of highly-processed RTD brands are now
available in sugar-free, gluten-free versions, some with added
“naturally occurring botanical flavours”. All the buzzwords.
Some producers are highlighting the existing wellness
credentials of their products. There is growing demand, for
example, for vegan wines that have been produced without any
animal-based processing aids such as the eggwhites traditionally
used for clarification. Lots of wines have been made like this
for years, but producers are now making their vegan-friendly
status explicit by including it on their labels.
Some producers are jumping onto the conscientious
consumption wagon by promoting the fact that they’re organic
or biodynamic, implying that “cleaner” grapes make “healthier”
wine. The growing number of wines bottled with no added
preservatives is also tapping into consumer concerns about
the “toxins” we’re all putting into our bodies.
And some producers are responding to the health-and-
wellbeing trend by developing entirely new products, packed
with ingredients that are good for you.
Geelong-based company Botanical
Brew recently launched Australia’s first
Jun Kombucha, an alcoholic (four per cent
by volume) variation on the wellness set’s
favourite drink, fermented with honey and
green tea and bottled unpasteurised, with all its
live cultures intact, to “maintain the beneficial
probiotics, enzymes, vitamins and minerals”.
And The Cannabis Co, a Melbourne-
based specialist in hemp-based products,
has released a small-batch gin made using
a number of botanicals including a terpene
called limonene extracted from cannabis,
and jilungin, an indigenous herb grown in
the Northern Territory and harvested by
the local Nyul Nyul people. The therapeutic effects of the
ingredients in this spirit are extensive: according to recent
research jilungin contains more antioxidants than green tea,
and it is revered by the Nyul Nyul for its healing properties;
limonene is reputed to aid with anxiety, and improve digestion,
mental focus and even libido.
There may be potential hurdles ahead, though, for some
of these new products aimed at the wellness-aware consumer.
The more they proliferate, the more attention they’ll attract
from regulators. Food-labelling laws forbid the use of health
claims on the packaging of alcoholic drinks, and the (albeit
voluntary) Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code also prohibits
any suggestion in any marketing material that a product “offers
therapeutic benefit or is a necessary aid to relaxation”.
Bearing this in mind, some producers are approaching the
whole issue of wellbeing with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
When Canberra winemaker Bryan Martin produced his
vermouth-styled bitter tonics, for example, his packaging
designer put together a label evoking 19th-century newspaper
advertising inspired by restorative tonics such as the Angaston
Bitters mentioned earlier. “Doctor Martin’s Cathartic Liquor”,
says the fine print on the label, will “alleviate common ailments
of modern life” and “prevent mid-afternoon melancholy”.
“Doctor” Martin called his drink Outlandish Claims.●“Doctor Martin’s
Cathartic Liquor,”
says the fine print,
will “alleviate
common ailments
of modern life”
and “prevent
mid-afternoon
melancholy”.GOURMET TRAVELLER 63