Cheap vino

Once upon a time I used to smoke cigarettes at an astonishing rate, and drink G&T’s and wine with gay abandon in the evenings.

Image by Erwin Hesry on Unsplash.

When I was in my twenties working in a design studio in North Sydney, it was common practice to seek creative inspiration by lighting up another cigarette. It was also okay to smoke in boardrooms when doing a pitch to the managing director of a large corporation. No one seemed to care a jot. Even my doctor used to puff away in his surgery when I saw him.

A couple of decades later and living in Tasmania, I was no longer smoking cigarettes (thanks to my dear friend Pru’s encouragement). Drinking alcohol was still a regular pursuit though. After work, while making dinner for the teenagers, my husband, Alan, and I used to fill up our wineglasses from the cardboard wine cask in the fridge. Top-ups just involved opening the fridge door and pressing the nozzle, wineglass held below. Eventually we thought we should be a bit more circumspect and started buying the 2-litre wine cartons, rather than the 4-litre ones, telling ourselves we were buying better quality wine and therefore wouldn’t need to drink so much.

The drinking-wine-from-casks period of our lives didn’t last long. Wine in bottles became more affordable and the quality was way better. Ever the home economist, Alan sanctioned the regular $27 deal (three bottles of NZ sav blanc) at our local bottle shop. We’d try to make this amount last the week … I really dislike sauvignon blanc now!

This was during the period when we only did grocery shopping once a week — on Saturday mornings. I was then an avid reader of Delicious and other foodie magazine, and had countless cookbooks (Bill Granger, Maggie Beer, Jamie Oliver, Stephanie Alexander et al). I would plan every meal we were going to make during the week ahead and buy all the ingredients, so we had everything we needed. I kept notebooks that recorded each meal, its cookbook/magazine source, plus gave each recipe a star-rating. Looking back, it was all quite ‘gourmet’ (in Kath-and-Kim speak). I even made desserts. I guess this contributed to making our last couple of decades working 9-5, and getting the mortgage paid off, more palatable.

My, how times have changed. Now retired and in our early 70s, gone are the ‘gourmet’ meals and for the most part, the alcohol, as well — too many health concerns, food sensitivities and allergies, high cholesterol, insomnia and other dullsville ageing complaints.

Alan and I take turns making dinner now – one night on, one night off.

‘What will I make for dinner — any suggestions?’, we ask each other often.

Because I have little interest in spending a great deal of time preparing a meal, I favour making Mediterranean-style one-dish oven meals. Conveniently, recipes for these come up daily on my Instagram feed. (I’m a big fan of Stella Drivas and her Hungry Happens Insta account.)

Alan still thinks he is cooking for a crowd and uses many pots and pans, a variety of cooking methods and lots of ingredients to produce a meal. Impressive, plus he looks good in an apron. On balance, you are probably better off coming to dinner at our place on a night when Alan is cooking.

Me in the early 1980s on a work trip.

Over the last couple of years, we have cut back on the amount of alcohol we drink — mostly we don’t have any at all. The reduction has been driven by health and sleep issues, and probably also by the fact that alcohol in the evenings puts me to sleep on the couch almost as soon as we start watching an episode of our current series. And I do love our shows.

Being alert enough to follow a Nordic noir series, and feeling clear headed the next day, are more important to me now than the momentary feel-good factors of alcohol. Yes, this mostly alcohol-free existence is a little bit sad considering we are at a time of our lives when we can afford good wines and even have a son-in-law who is a wine connoisseur/winemaker. Such is life — a shame I seem to have used up my allocated life wine quota.

An enduring memory from my childhood years is visiting my grandmother on Sunday afternoons with mum and dad and my three siblings (Tom came later). Often, my aunt and uncle and four cousins would be there too. We kids would play mostly outside. Inside, the adults would be drinking whisky and sodas and smoking. It was quite atmospheric with a haze of smoke in the room and the babble of their voices, the fire on in winter. I remember curling up on Nanny’s lap and thinking that the blend of whisky and Craven A cigarettes was a heavenly smell. After our visit, we’d all pile in the car and Dad would drive us home (over the drink/driving limit probably.) Seatbelts weren’t a thing back then either. Happy days.

Thankfully the rates of smoking are now greatly reduced in Australia. Since 1991, the smoking rate has decreased from approximately 24% to around 8% in 2025. Remember those grim anti-smoking, charred lung and missing toes campaigns? I know only two people in my extended family/wider friendship circle who still smoke.

Statistics also show that Australians are drinking less and increasingly choosing quality over quantity when it comes to drinking alcohol. Despite this, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs are still major causes of preventable disease, illness and death in Australia. I like to think my grandchildren won’t be exposed to the same cultural influences and peer pressure to smoke cigarettes and to drink the quantities of alcohol my generation of baby boomers did. There will be enough other things for them to be worrying about in the times ahead ...