The Miracle of Alcohol without Alcohol
Larry Leigon's Secret Life of Wine Newsletter
Photo by Scott Warman, https://unsplash.com/s/photos/wine-glass
I want a new drug
One that won't make me sick
One that won't make me crash my car
Or make me feel three feet thick
I want a new drug
One that won't hurt my head
One that won't make my mouth too dry
Or make my eyes too red
One that won't make me nervous
Wondering what to do
One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you
When I'm alone with you
—” I Want a New Drug” by Huey Lewis and the News
I grew up in the Methodist Church. Methodists do not drink. We do not dance. We only breathe on alternate weekends. We are possibly the world’s dullest religion. As a child, it seemed impossible for me for a Methodist to sin because we didn’t have the imagination for it.
A Methodist minister, Thomas Welch, found the whole idea of real wine at communion sinful and just as you might suspect, he invented Welch’s grape juice as a wine substitute to keep his congregation off the sauce.
There are all kinds of reasons people want to drink without drinking —not stop drinking mind you—just drink and not bear the consequences. Some want to get high but like Huey Lewis above, want it to be healthy.
Some have trouble controlling drinking and just want to be able to stop before the bus goes in the ditch. Others don’t want to drink but want something to taste like alcohol, give you the same effects as alcohol, but not be alcohol.
Well my friends, if you have ever thought about any of those things, or know someone who has, you have come to the right place.
The miracle of our time is that now all of those things are actually possible.
Miracle Alcohol with No Hangovers
Should you find yourself wandering about the labs at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, you would see a thing you seldom see—rows and rows of inebriated mice laid out before you, lying on their backs, sleeping peacefully after a late night bender.
Fear not, they will awaken as normal as ever once they’ve slept it off.
As you look around you will spy another set of mice sprightly trotting along a rotating rod—which you and I can’t do, but is quite normal for mice. At least it is if they are sober.
It’s akin to us walking a straight line when the cops pull us over and make us breathe into the tube.
The difference is that two hours earlier, some of these rotating-rod-walking, preternaturally ambulatory mice were just as drunk as their sleeping cousins that you just passed on the way in.
The secret is a hormone (FGF21) used by Steven Kliewer and friends at the Southwestern Medical Center and injected into said party mice after they had passed out.
The mice came to after an hour or two ( instead of the usual four or five) and were good to go, skipping across rotating rods as if nothing had ever happened, knowing exactly where they left their keys.
Is it possible dear reader, that you could drink as much as you want and wake up without a hangover or any ill effects?
The hormone caused the hard drinking mice to consume less alcohol, drink more water and protected against alcohol induced injury to the liver."
Hmmm….wait… more water, less alcohol…could it help you lose weight too?
Definitely a miracle in the making.
What if cocktails didn’t give you a hangover?
https://www.marmiton.org/repas-de-fetes/album1305972/recettes-de-cocktails-0.html#p1
Miracle Nose Spray: How to cut back on drinking without even trying
My favorite brain part—and your’s too even if you don’t know it—is a region in the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area of the hypothalamus. The nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle collectively form the ventral striatum.
OK, so I had to copy that last part out of Wikipedia.
But there is a full chapter (beginning on page 175) in my book, “The Secret Life of Wine” that is all about the Nucleus Accumbens, which is more often called “The Craving Spot” by normal human beings. ( You are encouraged to buy the book below)
It is this craving spot in your brain that keeps on drinking when the rest of your brain is thinking maybe it’s time for coffee.
The greatness that is American ingenuity is alive and well in the same great state that brought us the Civil War and the Declaration of Independence (Virginia) and is currently admirably embodied by a research company named Indivior and it’s Chief Scientific officer Christian Heidbreder.
Mr. Heidbreder et al have developed what must surely be the highest selling nasal spray of all time once it’s released.
It’s designed for people who can’t control their drinking but don’t want to stop drinking entirely.
Spray it up your nose 5 minutes before you start putting them back and voila! You don’t want to drink as much.
The miracle drug that makes it work is naltrexone. It magically changes dopamine molecules (which make you feel happy) into a totally different molecule that lowers your cravings and thereby makes you drink less.
You don’t need to know that though. Just that your craving for alcohol is signficiantly cut back much sooner than usual, so you drink less but with the same satisfaction as before.
The Miracle of Non alcoholic Alcohol
I am as you no doubt remember, a founding partner and former President of Ariel Vineyards.
Ariel Vineyards ( the old one, not the current one) non-alcoholic winery was, is and always will be, the only non-alcoholic wine in history to win a gold medal against wines with alcohol
The only non-alcoholic wine to ever wine a gold medal against wines with alcohol at what was then the most important wine tasting in the U.S. —the Los Angeles County Fair.
I know this because they banned us from all alcoholic wine tastings after that.
Wine critics were not nearly as amused at being fooled as I was.
And what was the comment I heard most while moving about the world having my life threatened by wine lovers everywhere?
“It’s not bad, but it’s missing something”.
To which I would reply sweetly,
“Of course it’s missing something you moron. It’s missing the alcohol”.
Holy Sherlock Holmes, it’s not a secret people, it’s written right there on the label.
God what we would have done to find an alcohol substitute. I would be strolling about the French Riviera with a glass of champagne right now if we had found such a thing.
Sadly, we were ahead of our time.
Well, miracles do happen, even if, like the wheels of justice, they are a little slow.
Consider, if you will, the London based company GABA labs. Specifically, Mr. David Orren and Mr. David Nutt. who, through the grace of God have finally made Huey Lewis’s dream come true.
Alcarelle. Learn it. Love it. Live it.
It is alcohol without the alcohol.
The two Davids are quoted in the Wall Street Journal:
“It feels like what a glass of wine feels like. It feels relaxing. It makes you a bit more chatty, a bit more socially engaged with people,” says Mr. Nutt.
“It feels like a warm glow,” Orren says. “You’re being you. And you’re being with somebody that’s being them. You’re being real.” —which is coincidentally, what my generation says about marijuana.
“The synthetic alcohol is a tasteless ingredient formulated to be added to versions of nonalcoholic drinks from beer to wine and spirits,”—from the Wall Street Journal, July 2023
Be still my beating heart.
The company will be testing in the United States first—first!—in mid 2026.
Anybody want to get rich? You know where I am.
Soma was a magical plant in the Vedic lore of ancient India. It was said to grant you immortality and eternal bliss. from https://www.vedanet.com/soma-the-bliss-principle-in-vedic-knowledge/
The Last Word
The promise of a perfect drug goes back at least 3000 years to the Vedic Songs of India with it’s celebration of the miracle drug Soma. Huey Lewis was still trying to find it in 1984. We were trying to find it at Ariel in 1984 when his classic song came out.
And people are still trying to find it today.
It remains a deeply human longing to experience the effects of enlightenment without the work. To be at peace in a world that is not at peace with itself.
Wherever wine may lead you, may it always encourage such peace as you can find in your own life and bring you joy.
As always,
Thanks for coming.
Note on sources: I am indebted to Julie Wernau’s article for the Wall Street Journal, “Enjoy the Alcohol, without the Hangover” from July 28, 2023 for the facts about today’s efforts to achieve what we only dreamed of back then. The part about Ariel is of course mine only, any faults are all mine, as are any conclusions I have drawn from either.
Check out The Craving Spot chapter in my book, “Secret Life of Wine.” Click the button for instance access on Amazon!
Larry Leigon