5 Things We Learned in November 2024
Determining factors affecting wine choice, book bars with wine, and ways to escape awkward conversations—just a taste of the fascinating things we learned last month.
Vital advice in time for the holidays
The holidays are on their way, which means so are the awkward situations. There will be conversations with long-lost relatives that go on for too long, or unwelcome political rants from people who haven’t noticed the look of terror in your eyes. But this year, there’s nothing to fear.
Back in 2020, a crack team of psychologists from several top universities, including Harvard, decided to find out how easy or difficult it was to end a conversation. They used structured interviews, conversation recordings, and some complicated algebra.
What they discovered is that conversations almost never end when either both participants wanted them to, or when one participant wants them to: “Conversants had little idea when their partners wanted to end and underestimated how discrepant their partners’ desires were from their own. These studies suggest that ending conversations is a classic “coordination problem” that humans are unable to solve…”
Worse, humans get stuck in lengthy conversations because they stand there pretending to be interested.
Unfortunately, “Do Conversations End When People Want Them To?” just outlines the scale of the problem, but doesn’t solve it.
But according to Harvard-trained author Sarah Jane Ho, there is a way to leave difficult situations—palm the other person off on someone else. Or, as she puts it in an interview with CNBC: “The best way [to get out of a conversation with someone ] is to introduce them to somebody else,” Ho says. “It’s so seamless they won’t even notice.”
If everybody else has already backed away, Ho suggests excusing yourself by saying you have to refill your drink. If all else fails, claim you need to go to the toilet. Just remember, you’re not being rude. According to the research, the other person probably wanted to end the conversation as badly as you.
How diabetes drugs are affecting alcohol consumption
It’s been understood for a while that the blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic and its weight-loss cousin Wegovy reduce the desire for alcohol, but now there’s new proof that they can help treat Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD): “In a study of around 228,000 people in Sweden who had alcohol use disorder, researchers found that people who were taking a GLP-1 drug like semaglutide were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related issues.”
The implications are huge. According to a recent article in nbcnews, more than 28 million American adults have some kind of problem with alcohol. So far, there have been few effective treatments available. Now doctors are trying to work out whether these drugs can be prescribed for people who don’t have either obesity or diabetes.
But the even bigger, more existential question is why these new drugs have such a profound impact on alcohol and drug use disorders: it suggests intriguing links between the desire for food and general feelings of reward.
Food Market says this new class of drugs “have the potential to cut calories consumed in the US by around 10%”. As for their impact on the overall alcohol market, that’s still an open question, but it probably means the ‘drinking less but better’ trend will continue.
Civilisation is not yet dead.
Both wine and book sales have declined in recent years, an incalculable cultural loss. Well, some New York bookstores are pushing back. The New York Times reports on the rise of the ‘book bar’, a hybrid space that sells both books and drinks, from cocktails to wine to coffee. Patrons can order a drink, choose a book, and then settle in for a read.
More of these, please.
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Let the sunshine in
The news about 2024’s wine grape production is grim, with production down in many countries, due to erratic weather—France alone saw a 23% decline. But there has been some good news out of France.
Sun’Agri, a French agrivoltaics company—meaning a company that specialises in the dual use of land for farming and solar panels—has announced that two of its southern French facilities saw grape yields increase by 20% to 60% this year, thanks to being under solar panels. “The PV modules helped regulate temperature fluctuations, reducing summer heat peaks and winter temperature declines,” wrote PV Magazine.
Not only that, but grapes grown under the panels turn into wine with lower alcohol—1.5% less. It sounds like everyone who can afford to should plan to add some solar panels to their vineyard in 2025.
Leadership insights
CEO Pauline Vicard was invited to lead LVMH’s leadership retreat, from where she sent everyone pictures of Sicily, while knowing they were all working hard on Areni’s next projects.
It sounded like an extraordinary event, bringing together some of the most insightful people from across the world of wine. While she can’t share much of what was discussed, she noted the following:
What are the key determining features?
Before Renault launched their electric car, they studied the behaviours of those customers most likely to buy electric. One ‘determining factor’ they uncovered was that the more time someone spent on social media, the more likely they were to buy an electric car.
One online wine merchant discovered that customers who bought across many regions were more profitable than customers who only bought from one or two wine regions.
The next step is to uncover the ‘determining factors’ that would help the wine trade identify those young consumers most likely to buy wine.
AI isn’t as helpful as promised
One wine merchant who’s been using AI for ten years has discovered that although it’s very useful for creating content, it’s no more efficient than humans at determining the perfect pricing and maximise margins.
Go small or go home
After one whisky producer moved from a 700ml bottle to a 500ml bottle, sales soared. It turned out that people were buying the bigger bottle as a gift. But they bought the smaller bottle for their own consumption. The implication is that it’s time for the wine trade to consider smaller formats, especially in light of the trend towards moderation.
But for Christmas, of course, normal sized bottles are in. As are magnums.
