*Duncan (15th from left) queues for a bottle of Primitivo, 2002.*

Sorry to say, I haven’t visited Norway for over 20 years. I’d love to go back and see old friends again. When I was last there, I stayed with those friends on Askøy, an island west of Bergen. Looking forward to our Friday night reunion meal, I suggested I could nip out and get some wine to accompany the mackerel we’d just caught.

‘Nei, it’s after four. The shop’s closed.’

‘There’s only one place I can buy a bottle?’

‘Ja, the Vinmonopolet in Kleppestø. We can go there tomorrow.’

The government monopoly on alcohol sales was introduced in the 1920s, not to curb alcohol sales, but to start allowing them in a controlled way. Alcohol had been completely prohibited in Norway since the previous decade. Of course that didn’t mean people didn’t drink: it meant they resorted to home-brewed beer and home-distilled spirits. The government decided it was dangerous for the population to consume aquavit distilled by amateurs, in secret and without regulation. So prohibition was replaced by a tightly controlled chain of government-run bottle shops.

Back in 2002, the Askøy Vinmonopolet didn’t have any bottles on display. You stood in a lobby with some text-heavy posters on the wall, and a catalogue about the size of the Orcadian phone book on the counter. That listed all the beer, wine, and spirits available. Once you’d made your selection – which was quite hard to do with so little information or inspiration available – you told the clerk behind the counter, and paid. He disappeared through a door at the back, and reappeared a few minutes later with your bottle, already wrapped and concealed in a plastic bag. Then you scuttled home somewhat embarrassedly, as if you’d been partaking in some illegal or at least immoral activity.

Which is what, it seems, the Scottish Government now believes.

Thursday 9th March was the final day when we could have our say in the government’s current consultation on ‘Alcohol advertising and promotion.’ If you had a few minutes to spare you could go to https://consult.gov.scot/alcohol-policy/alcohol-advertising-and-promotion/ and answer as many of the 51 questions as you had views on. Your views may be different from mine, which is quite understandable. But I know for sure that most of my customers react with astonishment when I report some of the proposals being put forward:

Under 18s not to be allowed in a premises that sells alcohol. (What are families out shopping going to do? Leave their kids alone on the pavement?)
Separate rooms for alcohol sales, with the bottles partitioned off from other deli goods. (Impossible in a small shop like K&G or other high street stores. There are already strict rules, by the way, for not mixing alcohol and non-alcohol products in the same area.)
A ban on print and online advertising, and also product branding. (No more Highland Park fleeces or Kirkjuvagr gin glasses, no more web or social media posts when new wines arrive, no more window displays to advertise some of Orkney’s finest products to tourists.)

Governments should certainly be concerned for the health and wellbeing of the population. But this consultation signals an extreme and alarming intervention in an industry that has slowly evolved over centuries, always tending towards more regulation and safety. It’s revolution, not evolution. Did you ask for that? Are you happy about it? Doesn’t the wider food culture have a role to play in the problems being laid firmly at the door of alcohol? How about education? How about deprivation?

Meanwhile, back in Norway, I hear that things have changed. Shortly after I last visited a Vinmonopolet, regulations were altered to allow for more customer choice, and better displays. Norwegians can now choose from an admirably wide range of wines, attractively presented, with lots of useful information and knowledgeable staff on hand.

In fact, modern Vinmonopolets sound very like the well-run, responsible independent retail shops of Orkney.

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 8th March 2023. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions

Diary of a Shopkeeper, 5th March