While looking up George Carlin on Google earlier I came upon information that he entered rehab awhile back to kick his dependence on wine anmd Vicodin. At that tine he was drinking about a bottle and a half of wine a day. This doesn’t seem like much to me, given that a standard 750ml bottle contains only around 3 1/2 glasses of wine. I’ve seen many people drink a bottle of wine with a meal.
Additionally, I’ve always heard about the French drinking wine with virtually every meal from childhood on and my impression has been that they drink much more than a bottle a day on average, yet I don’t ever recall hearing or reading that the French drink too much wine or that they tend to be alcoholics.
So if anybody here is in a position to know, is, say, a bottle of wine a day indicative of a drinking problem, or could someone safely drink a bottle of wine a day without worrying about being or becoming an alcoholic?
A bottle of wine a day, continually, would be a lot for me. On occasion when I have had that much, I really didn’t feel very good the next day, and wouldn’t want to make it a daily lifestyle choice. Though for others, it might be different.
I believe this corresponds to about two-thirds of a standard drink–12 oz. of beer, four ounces of wine, or 1.2 ounces of liquor, and the only reason I can think of for using such an apparently irrelevant amount is that beer is usually drunk in pints, and a pint of standard beer equates to about two units.
I’ll try that again, and maybe a kindly moderator can remove my other post.
A bottle of wine a day, continually, would be a lot for me. On occasion when I have had that much, I really didn’t feel very good the next day, and wouldn’t want to make it a daily lifestyle choice. Though for others, it might be different.
There’s a concurrent thread which cited [this](http://on the effects of alcohol wh…23069189/)recommendation, from a British health information site, that men should keep their consumption of alcohol under 21 ‘units’ and not go over four ‘units’ a day. Women were recommended to stay under two-thirds of that level of consumption.
I believe this corresponds to about two-thirds of a standard drink–12 oz. of beer, four ounces of wine, or 1.2 ounces of liquor, and the only reason I can think of for using such an apparently irrelevant amount is that beer is usually drunk in pints, and a pint of standard beer equates to about two units.
You using tumblers or pint glasses? I get ~6 glasses of out of a standard bottle if I’m doing “normal” pours. Large pours give me 4 glasses, and those are truly LARGE pours. A 750 ml bottle of wine is about 25 ounces, so six glass is a little more than 4 ounces each.
Anyway, how much wine is too much? That’s a subject dear to my heart. If I didn’t worry about the calories in wine - which is my primary concern, not the alcohol - I could easily drink a bottle every night. Right now, I’m not used to that, so I’d feel it the next day. I know from experience, though, that my tolerance would go up and within a couple weeks it would be no problem. So yeah, I don’t think a bottle a day habit is a sign of alcoholism or would severely incapacitate most people.
For what it’s worth, most alcoholics that I know go for what gets them drunk the fastest in the minimal amount of time. Wine just don’t cut it there - it’s relatively low in alcohol, making it an expensive drunk even if you buy the cheap stuff.
In the case of George Carlin, my guess is that the problem was more in the potentiating CNS depressant effect of the alcohol plus Vicodin (analgesic narcotic) rather than the wine alone.
That’s one large glass! A 75cl bottle serves 6 round here. I find that over the courses of a meal, about 50cl @ 11% or 12% ABV is about right for me - but only with a meal. And I’m considerably bigger than most. And not every day - or even every other day.
Thanks to everyone for your posts (and for making me aware that perhaps my perception of a ‘glass’ of wine is a bit generous).
I don’t drink a bottle a day every day, but I can easily drink a bottle of wine in an evening; and with no ill effects the next day. I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t developed such an enjoyment of it and tolerance for it that it was about to become a problem.
Some bottles of wine are 1.5 litres. Carlo Rossi wines smallest bottle is 1.5, and it’s only $3.99 @ the local grocery store here. Drinking that much a day, mixed with 'script meds is dangerous.
Plus George was a slim guy (he seems to have bloated recently). A big guy like me [6’1, 220) can occassionally drink that much wine (without the meds, of course) and survive. A skinny shit like Carlin drinking that much (WITH meds) EVERY day is asking for trouble.
True. I hadn’t originally been thinking about wine in the context of its interaction with drugs; and I’m a big guy too, so that would account for some of the tolerance, I suppose.
Let’s say you have two glasses of wine with lunch, 3 or 4 with dinner, and then some port to finish things off. That’ll get you over one bottle in a day, and you wouldn’t be anywhere near falling down drunk. I wouldn’t be.
But every single day? That might add up over time…
Nobody’s attempted to define “too much” here. From a health point of view, I’ve heard a number of physicians say that a glass or two of red wine per day can be considered good for your heart. Few consider a couple of glasses a day to be a bad thing. Above that, it stops being positive and you have to determine where the neutral/“bad” break point is. I find it difficult to believe that a bottle a day isn’t damaging your liver. If you drink enough to make you puke and fall down, that’s too much.
Psychologically, you have to consider when it becomes an addiction, and that’s not just based on quantity. If you HAVE to have your wine every night, to the point where you’ll go driving around for an hour in a strange town hunting for a liquor store so you can buy a bottle for your hotel room, that’s not a good thing.
Socially, if you drink enough to make you an obnoxious idiot, then it’s too much, whether that happens to be one glass or two bottles for you.
Personally, when my wife and I are at home alone, I’ll rarely drink more than two glasses. If we’re out socializing, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re drinking, and I’ve consumed more than a bottle before realizing it more than once. Of course, I drank a whole fifth of tequila once before I realized what I’d done (spread out over an 8-hour party). I’ve also gone for a month at a time without alcohol, so it doesn’t worry me much.
I get ~6 glasses of out of a standard bottle if I’m doing “normal” pours. Large pours give me 4 glasses, and those are truly LARGE pours. A 750 ml bottle of wine is about 25 ounces, so six glass is a little more than 4 ounces each.