The Guardian wine critic Victoria Moore and the fear of the Systembolaget

I recently happened to read an article in The Gurdian about the binge drinking problem in UK. In January, Guardian wine critic Victoria Moore wrote about the Home Office scrutinizing cut-price drinking deals, such as happy hours and all-you-can-drink offers. UK is, as is Ireland, a hard-drinking culture.

What sets the Nordic coutries apart, is the regulation. Victoria hopes that the Labour will not set its regulation-lovin' eyes to Sweden, where alcohol sales are done solely via Systembolaget, which is a state monopoly. Systembolaget works on the principle that if profit motive is removed, there is no reason to try and persuade individuals more than they were planning, sell alcohol to underage buyers etc.


"Apparently systembolaget has transformed Swedes from being one of the hardest-drinking nationalities in Europe (in the 1800s) to one of the lowest (now). This is all very fine but for those of us who love wine (as opposed to just alcohol), there's a problem: it means the government is deciding what wine you drink. Systembolaget carries 3,000 lines of beers, wine and spirits which sounds a lot until you consider that Oddbins, until recently, had 2,000. You can order a further 4,000, which again sounds generous, but from everywine.co.uk you can order more than 42,000 wines, and goodness knows how many more spirits and beers it's possible to buy in the UK." - Victoria Moore

What she fails to mention, is that Systembolaget is one of the biggest wine buyers in the world. Because of its bulk deals, its able to negotiate very good prices for the end users on top-of-the range articles, such as champagne. Also, you really can get wine from other sources. Jesus, go to Oddbin's pages for starters..

Vic, there's still room for wine critics even if you only have Systembolaget :)



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