Sadly for us, and for our industry, alcohol is too often abused, used as a way of self-medication when we are feeling low or rejected to drown our sorrows. It could be that we have lost a loved one, failed in an exam, been rejected by our girlfriend or perhaps by a gorgeous female fruit fly……..

I actually can’t believe that I’m writing this, but a study by the University of California in San Francisco has proved that male fruit flies turn to alcohol when they are rejected by female fruit flies that are hovering nearby. Now, the first question is fairly obvious. Why on earth were they researching this in the first place, and secondly, what relevance does this study have to our daily lives? Well, apparently, the answer is that frustrated flies have quite similar brain mechanisms to humans – the brain chemicals that control appetite actually correlate strongly with a thirst for alcohol, especially when we are feeling rejected. In tests, the flies, perhaps surprisingly, favoured a liquid mixture spiked with 15% alcohol in preference to other fruits, such as rotting bananas.

In similar studies mice, rats and monkeys also turned to drink after periods of isolation, bullying or after becoming victims of aggression.

The explanation is that when we are feeling low the levels of a compound called NPF in our brain falls, we get dysphoric, and this gives us a strong urge to drink. The object of the study therefore, is to develop a drug to enhance NPY activity, thus reducing the craving.

In summary, all I can say is that there must be an awful lot of frustrated fruit flies in our cellars around harvest time, either that or they just appreciate a good albariño when they taste one!

Sadly for us, and for our industry, alcohol is too often abused, used as a way of self-medication when we are feeling low or rejected to drown our sorrows. It could be that we have lost a loved one, failed in an exam, been rejected by our girlfriend or perhaps by a gorgeous female fruit fly……..

I actually can’t believe that I’m writing this, but a study by the University of California in San Francisco has proved that male fruit flies turn to alcohol when they are rejected by female fruit flies that are hovering nearby. Now, the first question is fairly obvious. Why on earth were they researching this in the first place, and secondly, what relevance does this study have to our daily lives? Well, apparently, the answer is that frustrated flies have quite similar brain mechanisms to humans – the brain chemicals that control appetite actually correlate strongly with a thirst for alcohol, especially when we are feeling rejected. In tests, the flies, perhaps surprisingly, favoured a liquid mixture spiked with 15% alcohol in preference to other fruits, such as rotting bananas.

In similar studies mice, rats and monkeys also turned to drink after periods of isolation, bullying or after becoming victims of aggression.

The explanation is that when we are feeling low the levels of a compound called NPF in our brain falls, we get dysphoric, and this gives us a strong urge to drink. The object of the study therefore, is to develop a drug to enhance NPY activity, thus reducing the craving.

In summary, all I can say is that there must be an awful lot of frustrated fruit flies in our cellars around harvest time, either that or they just appreciate a good albariño when they taste one!