One of the reasons I’m not in favour of dry January is that it teaches you nothing about moderation. The temptation is to go back to what you were previously drinking with a huge sigh of relief, in much the same way as you hit the Easter eggs after giving up chocolate for Lent.
There is another way forward, though, and that is to buy wines that are lower in alcohol; after the recent increase in duty on wines with a higher ABV, there are a now growing number of them, too. An 11% wine, for example, attracts £2.35 duty, compared with £2.67 for most still wines; reduce that to 8%, meanwhile, and you have to pay only £1.49.
