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The health effects of alcoholic beverages and the differentiation between moderate consumption and alcohol abuse are discussed controversially in medicine, sociology and politics. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse how consumers assess the relation among health, wine consumption and alcohol abuse.

A representative survey in Germany and in Hungary was conducted with 2,000 and 1,500 respondents, respectively. The survey included questions regarding the assessment and definition of alcohol abuse and moderate wine consumption.

The results show that in Hungary, moderate wine consumption is defined similarly as in Germany; on the contrary, in the case of alcohol abuse, there are significant differences. Regardless of cultural background, the respondents agreed that excessive wine consumption harms health and certain consumer groups (pregnant women or people under 16 years old) should avoid drinking wine.

These findings can contribute to a long-term goal-oriented wine in moderation strategy for consumers and support policy advice on moderate and excessive wine consumption.

The results help to understand how consumers perceive moderate and excessive wine consumption in everyday life, and how they judge wine as an alcoholic beverage. To the best of authors’ knowledge, there has not been similar study published on the perceptions of wine consumers in this regard, neither in Germany nor in Hungary.