A Question of Drinks

Ep 29: How Wine's Storytelling Obsession Became Its Most Expensive Delusion

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:31:54 +0000

Felicity and Lulie tear apart the wine industry's most cherished marketing belief: that the thing that will drive more sales and loyalty is better storytelling. Felicity, a guest lecturer in brand storytelling at the University of Cape Town Business School, argues that real storytelling — structured around stakes, reversals, and the narrative templates that have powered human communication since the savanna — is genuinely powerful. Lulie the marketer, armed with Ehrenberg-Bass, the work of Daniel Kahneman and a well-preserved 30-year-old Patagonia fleece, argues that storytelling is not only not a good method for building brand awareness and driving choice, but that it’s actively counterproductive.

Along the way there are detours through hunter-gatherer communities in the Philippines, the neurochemistry of charitable giving, Max Schubert making Penfolds Grange in secret while his employers told him to stop, and why the Widow Clicquot's entire legacy works as brand storytelling, even though almost nobody knows the mechanics of how it was assembled.

Meet Your Hosts:

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly. Her Drinks Insider podcast won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for Audio.

Ep 28: Non-Alcoholic, The Category That's Booming, Stumbling, and Broken, All at Once

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:23:24 +0000

Non-alcoholic drinks are the industry's favourite growth story right now, but Felicity and Lulie begin by asking the question nobody in the trade wants to answer: is this actually a health movement, or is it simply the drinks industry colonising new occasions? The data tells a more complicated story than the headlines suggest. Much of the category's growth is coming not from drinkers cutting back but from people upgrading what they reach for when they would previously have had a soft drink — which raises the uncomfortable possibility that the no-alc boom is less about sobriety and more about margin expansion.

To put the current moment in context, the conversation travels back through some unexpected history — prohibition-era soda fountains, and a little-known 75-year ban on agave spirits in Mexico — to show that the tension between alcohol, abstinence, and commerce is nothing new, and that category disruptions of this kind tend to follow recognisable patterns. From there, Felicity and Lulie break down the state of play inside the no-alc segment itself: why non-alcoholic beer has genuinely cracked the brief and earned its place on the shelf, why non-alcoholic spirits are still working out what they are and who they are for, and why alcohol-free wine faces a structural problem that no amount of clever winemaking has yet resolved.

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Ep 27: The $5 Party Drink Outsmarting the World's Biggest Spirits Brands and Other News

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:15:05 +0000

Lulie and Felicity are back to talking about the drinks news! And the news is big. Diageo's new CEO Sir Dave Lewis (also known as “Drastic Dave”) has delivered his first major investor presentation, outlining many of the problems facing Diageo, including a portfolio overweighted at the expensive end of a market. Felicity and Lulie dig into what Lewis's blunt assessment reveals about the state of premiumisation as a strategy — and whether the industry's dominant narrative of the past decade has been quietly masking structural decline.

But not every brand is struggling. Beatbox, the brightly coloured Texan party punch that sells for around $5 a carton, has just passed $300 million in annual US retail sales — and it got there by ignoring almost every convention the drinks industry holds dear.

Add to that Jägermeister's quietly impressive 2025, built on a fruit extension that has sold five million bottles in under a year, and a picture emerges of a market fracturing along price and purpose lines. The episode also touches on resealable Tetra Paks, drink spiking, the unit-of-alcohol economics that explain why cheap drinks are winning, and why someone in Belize is mixing whisky with local rum and calling it Risky.

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Ep 26: Justin Cohen on Why Most Wineries Are Marketing to the Wrong People

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:18:04 +0000

A/Prof Justin Cohen from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute takes wine marketing myths apart, one by one. He talks about why mental availability wins out over awareness, how to prioritise category entry points, and why the law of double jeopardy means small brands should stop chasing “loyalty” and start recruiting light and occasional buyers. Cohen maps the mechanics of growth across wine and beyond, from media choices to where your brand physically shows up, and explains why reach beats narrow targeting when you’re trying to get from zero to one purchase.

We also get into distinctiveness versus differentiation, portfolio cohesion, and the duplication-of-purchase reality that your customers are also someone else’s customers. Cohen shows how to design tastings that encode the brand not just the occasion, how to defend against retailer private labels with consistent distinctive assets, and how to adapt when affluent Boomers age out and younger buyers refuse waiting lists.

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Ep 25: How Marian Leitner-Waldman Turned Archer Roose Into a Scalable Brand

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:50:50 +0000

Lulie Halstead is on sabbatical. While she's away, she's chosen her favourite episodes from Drinks Insider to feature on A Question of Drinks and she explains why she's so impressed by them.

Her first pick is an interview with Marian Leitner-Waldman, founder of Archer Roose canned wines, which she says is a masterclass of brand building.

Entrepreneur and co-founder Marian Leitner-Waldman has single handedly overcome all the problems facing the wine industry. Archer Roose has a thriving audience of young consumers, who can’t get enough of high-quality wine in cans and bagnums, which appear in more than 6,000 outlets.

The reason that sales are up 35% year-on-year? The brand is built on a combination of high-quality wine, total transparency, and plenty of data.

In this episode, Marian talks about:

How wine-loving investors failed to see the market opportunity sitting right in front of them.
How Archer Roose launched without institutional funding.
How and why she partners with celebrity Elizabeth Banks, even though she says that celebrity brands are dead.
What beer distributors know about getting cans into hands, that wine distributors need to know.
What the wine industry is getting wrong about young people.
How Archer Roose opened up completely new markets, from cinemas to stadiums.
The issues surrounding cans and how Archer Roose solved them.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 24: The Truth About No and Low Drinks and Why Moderation Is Winning

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Are people leaving alcohol behind, or are they simply drinking less and less often?

In this episode of A Question of Drinks, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead dig into the data behind moderation. Drawing on IWSR, Gallup, Barclays, WHO and FT reporting, they unpack three forces reshaping consumption:

First, health and identity. Moderation is normalising. Abstinence peaks are flattening. Smartwatches, sleep data and calorie awareness are influencing behaviour — but not driving mass teetotalism.

Second, economics. Younger consumers are not morally superior — they are financially constrained. Alcohol remains a discretionary spend. Fewer nights out and tighter wallets are doing much of the heavy lifting behind declining volumes.

Third, chemistry. GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic may suppress desire itself, potentially altering drinking behaviour at a biological level. Cannabis, by contrast, appears largely additive rather than a substitute.

The conclusion? People have not stopped drinking. They are recalibrating.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 23: 2025's Beverage Battles: Who Won, Who Lost, and What's Next

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In this year-end episode, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead dissect the business stories that defined drinks in 205. From panic-driven mega-acquisitions and brutal brand sell-offs to the collapse of premiumisation as a default growth strategy, they trace how falling volumes, exhausted consumers, and shifting cultural norms forced the global alcohol industry into survival mode. If it earned enough per litre, it stayed. If it didn’t, it was dumped — sometimes at speed.

The conversation ranges across spirits, beer, wine, and no-and-low, covering Diageo’s boardroom bloodbath, tequila’s overstretched boom, wine’s consolidation into mega-entities, and why celebrities are now backing zero-alcohol brands instead of party drinks. Along the way, Felicity and Lulie unpack the rise of celebrity “authenticity,” Michelin’s controversial move into winery ratings, Liquid Death’s spectacular UK misfire, and what you need to do to get a drink in some parts of India.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 22: Everyone Swears They Want Authenticity. But We Keep Buying Big Brands. Why?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 10:12:49 +0000

Does it matter where your favourite drink comes from or who makes it?

Using the tangled origin story of the Tequila Sunrise, the secretive monks behind Chartreuse, and the very manufactured “Irishness” of Baileys, Lulie and Felicity ask whether the truth still matters… or whether it’s all about who has the best story.

Listener Adele from Australia sets the core question: younger drinkers say they want authenticity, but it’s the big, well-distributed brands that keep growing. Felicity and Lulie pull apart what “authentic” actually means for regulators, for brand owners, and for Gen Z with limited budgets and offer a simple framework: heritage, origin, and founder or personality

There are frameworks, fierce debates and a lot of discussion of the merits of Baileys. Plus, your personal tour of Lulie’s Christmas tree. It’s an episode that will challenge what you believe about stories, status, and what’s really in your glass.

Authenticity in drinks isn’t one thing but at least three: heritage (history and continuity), origin (place and terroir) and personality (founder or celebrity).
Big brands keep winning not because they’re more “authentic” but because they have mental and physical availability plus coherent, consistent stories.
Gen Z say they value authenticity, but the data shows they mostly buy convenience, price and coherence — “no bullshit” and repeatable quality beat obscure terroir.
You can’t simply declare yourself “fine wine” or “authentic”: status is conferred by others, and when stories clash with facts (see Trump Vodka, Goose Island) drinks punish the gap.
Authenticity is really about ethics and trust: fake heritage, fuzzy origin claims or outright fraud don’t just hurt one brand, they poison whole categories.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 21: The Real Reason You Can Remember the Name of Your Favourite Spirits, But Not Your Wine

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:31:06 +0000

Wine is the original luxury product, so why are there so few memorable wine brands?

In this episode, Felicity and Lulie dig into wine’s historic allergy to the word “brand” – even as wineries are being told their life’s work isn’t worth what they thought, because nobody remembers their labels. Drawing on IWSR data, they look at how few wine brands normal drinkers can actually recall, why most wineries sit at the bottom of the brand pyramid, and what Ehrenberg-Bass really means when it says brands grow through availability, not vague “loyalty”. Along the way, they pit wine against gin and beer, unpack why Champagne wins the memory game, and explain why fine wine secretly uses every trick in the marketer’s book while pretending it’s all just terroir and tradition.

From there they rewind the clock: Bordeaux négociants, aristocrats who thought money was vulgar, the rise of spirits brands like Gordon’s and Hennessy, the invention of glass bottles, appellations as proto-brands, and how varietal labelling became the default. It explains why wine itself is memorable, but individual wines are not.

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Ep 20: Wine's Dirty Secret: Why Everything Looks the Same When Everything's Changed

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Is wine innovative or stuck in the past? When listener Patrick asks why nothing seems to have changed in wine over 30 years, Lulie and Felicity turn this seemingly simple question into a full-blown courtroom drama. Lulie takes the prosecution, arguing that slapping fruit flavors into wine and calling it "innovation" is just New Product Development dressed up in fancy LinkedIn copy. Felicity fights back, insisting wine is quietly revolutionary, from screw cap technology to temperature-controlled logistics, but hides its innovations behind a veil of tradition. Spoiler: they both have receipts, and neither backs down easily.

From Pierre Bourdieu's theories on symbolic capital to the surprising Australian origin story of the Limoncello spritz, this episode unpacks why wine pretends nothing ever changes even as everything does. Along the way, discover why can liners might be the most underrated innovation in drinks, why invented traditions matter more than you think, and what Lulie's Gen Z goddaughters really think about canned wine. Plus: heated debates about Yellow Tail, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and whether innovation counts if nobody buys it. Bring your own wig and gavel, because this one gets lively.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 19: The 5 Psychological Traps Dominating Your Liquor Cupboard

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:02:32 +0000

Lulie and Felicity put out a plea on social media — “Tell us what’s in your drinks cabinet” — and discovered a whole world of crimes against taste.

Sweet, creamy liqueurs dominated the offerings (Baileys, Advocat, and even a banana liqueur with holiday PTSD), alongside objects of pride like single malt and bourbon that get opened but never finished. There was plenty of Sherry, Muscat and half-dead whites lurking in the name of “cooking” while the global curios proved that even the most discerning consumer can get suckered by duty free.

Researcher Lulie revealed the five drivers of the drinks cabinets, from the endowment effect and sunk-cost fallacy to identity signalling, magical thinking about future selves and sacralisation. Along the way we got into the Baileys origin story, why Advocat is basically alcoholic custard with 140g sugar/litre, and a simple cocktail framework that rescues strays without requiring a degree in bartending. It’s confession, anthropology, and behavioural science in one tidy purge.

You’ll never look at crème de menthe the same way again.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 18: Why the Reign of Red Wine Is Ending

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:00:00 +0000

Why is it red wine that accrues all the prestige? Is this because red wine is better — or for a historic reason?

Felicity and Lulie dig into this mystery and discover that red wine’s prestige didn’t come from taste alone, but from logistics, trade, and the infrastructure that developed around red wines — merchants, classifications, and long-distance shipping. Red’s ability to age made it tradable and collectible, creating a system of status and expertise that white wines couldn’t match. We trace this history through Bordeaux’s port advantage, Burgundy’s influence, and Italy’s late pivot from bulk production. Riesling’s boom-and-bust cycle shows how fragile reputations can be when they depend on markets and laws rather than inherent quality.

We also look at the technologies that are reshaping the hierarchy. Cool fermentation, stainless steel, sulfur management, screw caps, and cold-chain logistics have given whites new aging potential, just as consumer tastes shift toward freshness and chillable styles. Bourdieu’s sociology explains how prestige is socially constructed and maintained, while colour psychology reveals how strongly hues influence perception — even leading to the oddity of blue wine. Finally, we explore China’s move from gifting reds, where colour symbolised luck, to a growing preference for whites, alongside rosé’s celebrity-driven rise. The conversation ends by asking whether prestige still lies in the glass or mostly in the stories we tell around it.

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Ep 17: Why Does Natural Wine Make Some People So Angry?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:55:49 +0000

Natural wine has attracted vitriol, mean-spirited editorials and plenty of controversy. One of our listeners wrote in to ask why all the angst, and the hosts use it as a springboard to map the movement’s rise, backlash, and commercial co-option. Felicity sketches the history from Beaujolais and the “Gang of Four,” through the Parker era reaction, NOMA’s catalytic influence, and the media flashpoints that framed natural wine as an oppositional identity.

Lulie and Felicity also define what natural wine is, how it’s produced and the role of additives like sulphur dioxide. And they also discuss consumer perceptions and how consumer psychology can harden snap judgements into prejudice.

They then stress-test today’s narratives, from the beginning of the movement to today. Verdict: the movement reshaped wine culture and writing, but its successes and excesses now coexist. Better farming and more experimental styles on one side, muddled claims and unpredictable quality on the other.

Meet Your Hosts:

Summer Repeat: Why Isn't There More Wine In Small Bottles? (Or Cans?)

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 07:00:00 +0000

While Lulie and Felicity are busy writing the scripts for the new episodes, here's a repeat of one of our most downloaded episodes to date, asking that all-important question of why you can only get wine in big formats.

If everybody is moderating their wine intake, then how come there aren’t more small wine bottles on the shelf? And what would it take to put them there?

In this episode of A Question of Drinks, join hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they explore why wine continues to be sold in those standard 750ml bottles. And who decided it should be 750 ml in the first place?

Come on a journey into wine history, into a world of glass blowers, Biblical figures, show-offs and vending machines. Along the way the hosts explore bag-in-box, aluminium cans, and whether there’s really a bottle called the Goliath or whether it’s just an urban myth.

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Summer Repeat: The Unstoppable Rise and Rise of Rosé Wine

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Lulie and Felicity are going on holiday! And so have re-uploaded one of our most commented-upon episodes, for new listeners.

Pink wine is everywhere. On supermarket shelves, on Instagram, and clutched in the hands of celebrities. If there is a single defining wine of the 21st Century, it has to be rosé.

How did this pink wine go from being considered an icon of 70s kitsch to a celebrity diva?

In this episode of Drinks Insider, hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of rosé wine, looking at the economic, social, and technological forces that have made rosé wine such a hit.

From novel cooling systems to Instagram, the story of rosé is one of quirky changes that have had major consequences. Tracing the story from Portugal to Provence to the world, this is a story about how and why rosé became an unstoppable trend.

[00:05:28] Is the rosé wine boom here to stay — or just a fad?

[00:13:00] The surprising truth about global rosé consumption

[00:18:17] How changes in technology led to the unstoppable rise of rosé

[00:27:12] The role of Provence

[00:35:06] How Instagram fuelled a wine boom

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

Meet Your Hosts:

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor, speaker trainer and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly.

Ep 16: How Do Celebrities Influence What We Drink?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 10:00:51 +0000

Celebrity drinks are nothing new — they’ve been around for the past couple of centuries. But today’s star-backed bottles are more strategic than ever, blending personal branding with product placement. In this episode we look at where the phenomenon started, the different ways celebrities attach themselves to drinks, and the very real influence they can have on whole categories — for better or worse. We pull apart the success stories of Casamigos, Aviation Gin, and Miraval, and contrast them with high-profile disasters like Trump Vodka and the Bud Light backlash.

Along the way we unpick why some famous faces fit perfectly with their chosen tipple while others misfire badly, and how audience perception, authenticity, and timing determine whether a brand becomes a category leader or a cautionary tale. Expect historic gossip, marketing missteps, and the occasional marketing masterstroke as we ask the question: when you buy a celebrity drink, are you buying a great product or just the story on the label?

08:38 Roman vineyards and medieval popes as early examples of celebrity-linked wine.

10:43 The halo effect and why famous names can boost perceived quality.

12:49 Lily Langtry’s 19th-century California wine parties as a precursor to modern celebrity branding.

14:49 Defining celebrity in the modern age and how fame can be manufactured.

20:24 The three main types of celebrity drinks involvement — founder, co-creator, and endorser.

26:58 How Casamigos tequila and Aviation Gin boosted their categories before selling for huge sums.

28:28 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Miraval and its role in premiumising rosé.

31:00 The Trump Vodka catastrophe.

34:37 The Bud Light disaster, a horror show in slow motion.

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

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Ep 15: Why Do Holidays Change the Flavour of Wine?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Why does the same wine taste magical on holiday but boring when you open it at home? Felicity and Lulie unpack the fascinating mix of physiology, psychology, and culture that shapes our experience of flavour. From the mechanics of taste buds and retronasal smell to the cultural lexicons we use to describe flavour, they reveal why context is as important as chemistry.

Drawing on cutting‑edge research in sensory science, food psychology, and wine training, the hosts explore everything from genetic taste differences and airline wine selection to the role of branding, price, and expectation. If you’ve ever wondered why that charming wine you bought on holiday disappoints in your kitchen (or why wine critics sometimes seem to be speaking a different language), this episode explains why.

Taste is only about 20% tongue and 80% aroma, thanks to retronasal smell.
Our brains struggle to name aromas because smell evolved before language.
Genetic differences mean some people can’t detect key wine aromas, like violets.
Chinese wine drinkers describe flavours with culturally familiar terms, not Western fruits.
Super tasters experience bitterness more intensely but aren’t automatically better at wine tasting.
Training doesn’t give you more taste buds; it tunes your brain to notice relevant aromas.
Experiments show the same wine tastes “better” if presented as expensive.
Airline wine service adapts to taste dulling at altitude with bold, balanced styles.
Branding, labelling, and even background music measurably alter taste perception.
Wine quality is real, but our experience of it is filtered through mood, culture, and expectation.

Developing a Chinese lexicon for wine: https://marketingscience.info/wine/trade-articles/developing-chinese-lexicon-wine/

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

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Ep 14: Is Gen Z Giving Up On Alcohol? Part 2

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 06:00:00 +0000

In this episode of A Question of Drinks, Felicity and Lulie continue their deep dive into Gen Z drinking habits. Is this generation truly rejecting alcohol — or are they just broke?

Leaving no stone unturned, they dissect commercial reports from Barclays, Rabobank, and IWSR, comparing them with public health research that claims Gen Z is fundamentally different from previous generations. Discover how social media, economic pressures, and delayed adulthood are shaping drinking patterns.

From Tinto de Verano cocktails made with cheap Pinot Noir to boarding school rebellions and prawn cocktail crisps, this episode blends hard data with sharp conversation. The hosts discuss:

Whether social media is replacing alcohol’s social utility
Why underage drinking has plummeted
How economic models predict future alcohol growth
The difference between moderation trends in Gen Z vs boomers
Why brands must stop treating Gen Z as a monolith

Join Felicity and Lulie as they ask: Is the drinks industry doomed or simply changing shape?

In this episode:

04:43 Gen Z alcohol decline described as a long-term cultural shift

05:46 Alcohol losing its use as a tool of rebellion for Gen Z

12:50 Social media driving Gen Z to self-monitor and reduce drinking

15:10 Social media replacing alcohol’s role in making it easier to meet people

16:02 Asahi CEO links alcohol decline to rise of digital entertainment

21:04 Barclays predicts Gen Z alcohol spend will rise with disposable income

22:58 Rabobank says Gen Z drinks less not because they’re worried about health, but because they’re broke

31:00 IWSR data shows Gen Z alcohol consumption rebounding post-pandemic

34:44 Gen Z prefers temporary abstinence over long-term reduction

47:47 But it’s possible the cultural meaning of alcohol is changing despite sales data

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

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Ep 13: Is Gen Z Really So Different When It Comes to Alcohol? Part 1

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:01:54 +0000

It’s the question of the moment: why is Gen Z drinking less alcohol? Academics are wondering, banks are wondering, and the drinks trade doesn’t know what to think.

In the first episode of a two-part deep dive, Felicity and Lulie tackle this hotly debated question head one. In Part One, they examine a major new academic study, Young People, Alcohol and Risk: A Culture of Caution, which argues that Gen Z's attitudes to alcohol mark a generational shift, not just a life stage delay.

From risk-aversion to the rise of the Clean Girl Aesthetic, this episode explores what might be behind the dramatic fall in drinking across high-income countries — and whether it's really as new as people think. Along the way, expect Lidl wine tastings, boxing metaphors, rage-baiting influencers, and a brief moment of intergenerational defensiveness.

This episode covers:

A major new academic study argues that Gen Z is fundamentally different from previous generations in how they perceive alcohol.
The clash between cohort theory (generational difference) and life stage theory (age-based behaviour).
Who is Gen Z? Two sub-groups are defined: those born 1995–2002 and those born 2002–2012, with markedly different digital and social upbringings.
An overview of the level of fall in high-income countries like Australia, Sweden, and the UK, with researchers linking this to cultural change.
The role of risk aversion as the defining trait of Gen Z.
The rise of the “clean girl” aesthetic and Trad Wife content points to a cultural pull toward order, discipline, and nostalgia.
Gen Z is also more emotionally distressed than earlier cohorts, with higher rates of anxiety and depression shaping lifestyle decisions.
The study finds that Gen Z often views intoxication as inauthentic, with alcohol seen as a way to mask the ‘real self.’
While individual behaviour varies, the academic consensus is that this generation’s ambivalence toward alcohol reflects deeper structural shifts.
Lulie has questions about all of this. Big questions.

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

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Ep 12: Lies on the Label and Other Wine Crimes

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Felicity and Lulie investigate the murky world of wine and spirits fraud — from harmless fakes to lethal counterfeits.

They start with historic wine scandals that rocked Austria and Italy in the 1980s, where illicit additives led to injury and even death. From there, they explore the modern world of counterfeiting: billionaires tricked by fake Romanée-Conti, questionable Thomas Jefferson bottles, and the infamous case of Rudy Kurniawan, whose kitchen doubled as a counterfeit factory.

Lulie introduces her framework for understanding deception in drinks — “fake, fraud or faux” — and the duo discuss how fakes can turn up anywhere, as in the case of $10,000 fake whisky served in a luxury Swiss hotel.

Also covered:

Counterfeit bulk wine sold as French
The Gallo Pinot Noir scandal
Methanol poisoning in Southeast Asia
Why counterfeit spirits can blind or kill
Efforts to authenticate bottles using technology and carbon dating
How fake wine might still be sitting in collections around the world

Plus: undercover sommeliers, Elvis impersonators, and cheap wine confessions.

Got a question for us? Email us at aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com and it might just become our next episode.

Please note: the story of the Jefferson bottles and Hardy Rodenstock is covered in public record sources including The Billionaire’s Vinegar. No assertion is made about events not publicly documented.

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Ep 11: Who Really Invented Champagne?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 28 May 2025 11:00:00 +0000

In this fizz-filled episode of A Question of Drinks, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead investigate one of the wine world’s most persistent myths: who really invented Champagne? Was it Dom Pérignon, as the marketing legends claim — or were British scientists and merchants bottling bubbly decades earlier?

Expect exploding bottles, legal firestorms, Russian oligarchs, Stalinist innovation, and a blind tasting study that might permanently change how you see cheap sparkling wine.

What we cover:

The overlooked role of English scientist Christopher Merret (1662) in documenting secondary fermentation.
Why British coal-fired glass furnaces mattered more than French monks.
How Champagne marketing reinvented history and created global brand dominance.
The 1911 Champagne riots and how they shaped today’s AOC protections.
Champagne Jane vs. the CIVC: When trade protection becomes personal.
Why Californian 'Champagne' still exists — and the legal loophole keeping it alive.
What really happened when Belgian customs seized Gallo André 'Champagne' on its way to Nigeria.
Stalin’s role in democratising sparkling wine.
Consumer preferences: Do drinkers actually like Champagne best?
Sugar, calories, and labelling.

Plus:

Lulie tastes Chinese wine in Hong Kong.
Felicity finally tries Guinness (but did she like it?).
Australia goes soft, with Wagyu for dogs and "Paw-kies" on menus.

To contact us:

Got a burning drinks question? Or just want to tease Felicity about Guinness? Email us at: aquestionofdrinks@gmail.com

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 10: Why Are So Many People Signing Up for Wine Education?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 14 May 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Why are so many people suddenly fluent in tannins, terroir, and Tokaji?

There is an explosion of interest in wine education — and not just in the wine trade. Thousands of enthusiasts are signing up for wine courses, regardless of difficulty or cost.

What’s driving this new thirst for knowledge? Is it fun, status, or the chance to bond with others? s not just about work: many are taking courses for fun, for status, or to bond with others. The episode dissects the appeal of rigorous wine courses, from the WSET diploma to the notoriously difficult Master of Wine, and what motivates people to sign up even when pass rates are low and costs are high.

This episode also touches on how education is becoming a new kind of cultural capital, replacing the arts as a marker of sophistication. It features features personal stories, educational psychology frameworks like the Human Givens model, and historical insights into how institutions like the WSET and the Court of Master Sommeliers evolved.

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Ep 9: Is The Wine Trade Out Of Touch? Understanding Why People Get Confused by Wine

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Why do so many people find wine so confusing?

Is it something about wine itself, or is it because of the misconceptions that the wine trade has about wine drinkers?

Data maven Lulie Halstead and wine journalist Felicity Carter dive into the topic, looking at the consumer experience:

In supermarkets
When reading about wine on menus
In front of the wall of wine in retail
When talking to sommeliers and other wine professionals
With other people.

Is the wine trade putting up barriers to entry — or is there something else going on? Felicity and Lulie look at research from China, at international consumer data, and the questions that consumers themselves have asked, to come up with some answers.

If you’ve ever felt confused about wine, you’ll discover why. And if you’re a wine nerd, this episode might inspire you to approach customers differently.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 8: How The World Went Wild for Prosecco and Launched a Trade War

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

What happens when sparkling wine, global trade policy, and Paris Hilton collide? In this episode, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead take a deep dive into the unlikely but very real international trade war over Prosecco.

What could be more civilised than a glass of refreshing Prosecco, or a colourful Aperol Spritz? And yet this aperitivo ritual, adopted around the world, led to one of the most bitter fights in wine.

From vineyard slopes in northern Italy to Australia’s King Valley and the halls of the EU, this is a story of politics, marketing, and viticulture — and how one celebrity upended the serene world of wine.

In this episode:

Prosecco, from humble beginnings to international juggernaut
The invention of the Aperol Spritz — and why everybody’s drinking it
How a flying visit by celebrity Paris Hilton caused a regional crisis
The wily politician who exploited a legal loophole
Why an international trade war ensued

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 7: Why Isn't There More Wine In Small Bottles? (Or Cans?)

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000

If everybody is moderating their wine intake, then how come there aren’t more small wine bottles on the shelf? And what would it take to put them there?

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 6: Why Is Everybody Drinking Guinness All of a Sudden?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000

It may be more than 300 years old, but sales of Guinness are surging, as the Irish beer finds popularity with new groups of consumers of all ages. How has it managed to reinvent itself in a world of falling beer sales?

Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into everything Guinness, from the beer’s history to its taste, to the ‘Splitting the G’ social media trend that’s taking TikTok by storm. They explore every question, from the effectiveness of the 51-page pouring manual, to the immersive beer tourism experience, to the value of legacy advertising campaigns.

And they look at the phenomenal rise of Guinness 0.0 and ask what lessons can be learned by other drinks, both historic and modern.

It’s an entertaining look at an Irish institution that’s gone global — and which shows no signs of slowing down.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 5: The Unstoppable Rise and Rise of Rosé Wine

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Pink wine is everywhere. On supermarket shelves, on Instagram, and clutched in the hands of celebrities. If there is a single defining wine of the 21st Century, it has to be rosé.

How did this pink wine go from being considered an icon of 70s kitsch to a celebrity diva?

In this episode of A Question of Drinks, hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of rosé wine, looking at the economic, social, and technological forces that have made rosé wine such a hit.

[00:05:28] Is the rosé wine boom here to stay — or just a fad?

[00:13:00] The surprising truth about global rosé consumption

[00:18:17] How changes in technology led to new styles of wine

[00:27:12] The role of Provence

[00:35:06] How Instagram fuelled a wine boom

Ep 4: What’s Driving Us All to Drink Less?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 19:25:00 +0000

The days of the pre-lunch cocktail followed by the bottle of wine at lunch, followed by a chaser, are well and truly over. The peak of alcohol consumption came in 2012 and it’s fallen 25% since then. Not only are people drinking less alcohol than ever before, but many people now see any amount of alcohol as being bad for them.

What happened?

In this insightful episode, Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter look at the impact of technology, the rise of health and wellness trends, and the emergence of the sober curious movement. They also discuss the rise of the No- and Low-Alcohol category and ask whether it has a future or is just a momentary trend.

And they dive into controversial questions about just how bad (or not) alcohol really is, and look at the impact of health lobby messaging. You might want a drink in hand as you listen.

[00:01:55] Global Alcohol Consumption Decline Since 2012, it’s all been downhill.

[00:04:32] The Impact of Technology How a new gadget hit the market and had an unexpected impact on alcohol consumption.

[00:05:50] The Rise of Zebra Striping The hosts explore how the sober curious movement and the new trend of zebra striping are changing drinking habits.

[00:17:06] Conflicting Research on Safe Alcohol Levels The discussion highlights conflicting research and the controversy around the claim there is no safe level of alcohol.

[00:27:40] The Future of the Drinks Market With so much changing so fast, where to from here?

Meet Your Hosts:

Lulie Halstead founded and led international consumer research and strategy consultancy Wine Intelligence, and led it to a successful PE exit. Today she is a renowned global beverage alcohol and wine sector specialist, focused on consumer behaviour, strategy, retail and hospitality. An accomplished keynote speaker, she has spoken at more than 70 international events over the past 20 years.Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly.

Ep 3: Do Award-Winning Wines Taste Better?

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Join Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they unpack the complex world of wine scores, medals, and critics, asking where they come from and why the results can be so different between competitions and critics. Then they move into the history of wine criticism and the impact of figures like American wine critic Robert Parker, who changed the market.

They also unpack the psychological and sociological factors that affect consumer perceptions of wine, to find out what consumers think about it all. And they discover a surprising truth about what drives people to choose one wine over another.

And they answer the question — do those little gold dots on bottles of wine count for anything?

In this episode:

[00:05:19] How the emergence of Robert Parker and his 100-point scoring system significantly changed wine criticism.

[00:10:22] An insider’s look at how wine competitions across the world use different judging systems and get very different results, from Australia to Europe.

[00:24:27] How taste in wine is influenced by social class — and how awards and medals tap into “social capital”.

[00:26:52] How awards and medals act as a heuristic, helping consumers make quicker decisions.

[00:30:33] Where awards and medals sit in the hierarchy of choice.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 2: The Surprising and Sometimes Violent History of the Gin and Tonic

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Gin may have started life as a medicine for heartburn, but it became so popular, it turned into an instrument of mayhem and murder.

Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of gin to explore the question of how this one drink shaped history —and what has driven the contemporary gin craze. The discussion then explores the role of tonic water and its connection to the expansion of the British Empire.

And then the question comes round to the current boom in non-alcoholic versions. Can they last? And why did gin never take off in the US market, despite its popularity elsewhere? Like no other, gin illustrates how history and culture shape our drinks choices.

This episode includes:

(00:08:28) The role of the botanicals and where they come from.

(00:21:00) How the 18-th century gin craze led to murder and governmental crackdowns.

(00:27:00) How two entrepreneurs changed the law and kickstarted the modern gin boom.

(00:24:52) The role of tonic water in the colonial expansion of the British Empire.

Meet Your Hosts:

Ep 1: The Hidden Drivers of Fashions in Wine

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Why do we drink what we do? And why are we drinking different wines than we did 30 years ago?

Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into why the wine rack looks very different than it once did. But what is a wine style and who determines it?

And who gets to decide what we drink? It turns out the answer involves changes in technology, fashion and even what looks good on Instagram.

In the course of the discussion they roam over academic research, popular culture, the role of celebrities and critics, and even whether there really is more choice on the shelf, or whether it’s an illusion.

Included in this episode:

[1:00] All about the hidden side of the drinks market.

[14:00] How wine styles are classified.

[19:00] The unexpected role of technology.

[32:00] The influence of the critics and whether their judgements are still important or not.

Meet Your Hosts:

Trailer: Welcome to A Question of Drinks

Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:06:20 +0000

Why do we drink what we do? Why do some drinks catch fire for a time, and then spend decades at the back of the cupboard? And how do some drinks become classics? In this engaging podcast, drinks data maven Lulie Halstead joints drinks writer and researcher Felicity Carter on a journey into the world of drinks. Along the way, they discover that what's in the glass is more than a drink — it's a representation of cultural, technological and social shifts.