On établit habituellement une distinction fondamentale reposant sur les différences entre le sud et le nord de l'Europe. Ainsi, on parle de régions où la culture est "permissive" et transmet la tradition millénaire d'une génération à la suivante, et ce depuis l'enfance. Dans cette optique, le vin est apporté à table au moment du repas et l’agrémente. Cette culture rejette l'excès alcoolique et considère que la consommation d’alcool s’inscrit dans le patrimoine culturel et traditionnel local.
One fundamental distinction that can be made is between southern and northern Europe, i.e. between areas forming part of the so-called ‘wet culture’ - in which, according to an age-old tradition passed on through the generations from each person’s earliest childhood, wine is served with food, is something to be drunk with pleasure and to be taken
in moderation, and forms part of the local cultural and traditional heritage - and the ‘dry’ culture - in which, as a result of the mood-changing properties attributed to alcohol and the fact that it is not consumed as a part of normal day-to-day patterns, alcohol is drunk outside meal times, ge
...[+++]nerally at weekends and in huge quantities for the purpose of losing one's social inhibitions and escaping the conformism and rigidity imposed by social mores.
