Collecting Myths: Wine, Health, and Desire

"To collect wine, or any alcohol, is to curate not only bottles but stories, memories, and aspirations. A cellar becomes a gallery of taste and time: a 1990 Bordeaux resting beside a Sonoma Pinot Noir, each label recalling moments of celebration, of refinement, even of restraint. Collectors often speak of wine as a living art, something to be admired and shared, not merely consumed. But as new research from Stanford University reveals, the science of alcohol consumption is increasingly at odds with the romance"

"For years, collectors and casual drinkers alike were comforted by studies suggesting that moderate drinking, especially wine, could be good for the heart. The "French paradox" made it seem as though a glass of red wine each evening might confer protection, a scientific halo that justified the cellar and the toast alike. Many collections began, consciously or not, under this impression: that the pleasure of wine could also be its medicine."

"But the Stanford study, "Alcohol Consumption and Your Health: What the Science Says" (2025), and others dismantle this narrative. Dr. Randall Stafford, one of the lead authors, explains that the research claiming health benefits from moderate drinking was deeply flawed. Non-drinkers in those older studies were often people who had quit due to illness, skewing the results. Once scientists corrected for those biases, the health advantages of moderate drinking all but vanished. The comforting J-shaped curve-a little is good, too much is bad-collapsed under scrutiny."

Collecting wine preserves bottles, memories, and aspirations, transforming cellars into galleries of taste and time. Wine collections often began under the belief that moderate consumption, especially red wine, provided cardiovascular protection—the so-called French paradox. Corrections for bias revealed that prior studies misclassified former drinkers as non-drinkers, skewing outcomes and eliminating apparent benefits. Once biases were addressed, the purported health advantages of moderate drinking largely disappeared and the reassuring J-shaped curve collapsed. No proven health benefit of alcohol remains; consumption carries varying degrees of harm, making context and data provenance critical to evaluating claims.

Read at Psychology Today