Should we be giving kids ‘fake’ wine in champagne flutes?

After a pub received criticism for refusing to serve a child her soft drink in a champagne flute because it could ‘encourage her to drink’, wine expert Rosamund Hall asks: why don’t we trust parents to make decisions for their children?

Instead of pursuing a prohibitionist approach, we should be working to educate the next generation of drinkers about moderate intake (Getty/iStock)

A pub in Hampstead is facing a backlash due to claims that a mother was refused a champagne flute for her five-year-old daughter to join her parents in a toast to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

She didn’t want to fill it with the finest champagne – just her daughter’s Appletiser, which they’d bought at the bar. Yet the pub refused, allegedly saying that “it could encourage her to drink alcohol and it’s not a great look”.

As a former licensee, and the mother of a two-year-old son, my immediate reaction to this is somewhat mixed. The premises concerned will have a responsibility to protect children from harm, but you always have to use your judgement as to what that actually means.