Definition: prohibition

This was the most famous prohibition, which led to the legal ban on alcoholic beverages in the United States. It lasted fourteen years (from 17 January 1920 to 5 December 1933). This ban affected the production, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages. Exceptions were made for the production of alcohol for medicinal purposes and wine for sacramental purposes.
Prohibition also existed in several Scandinavian countries.

How it worked and how it was circumvented
Prohibition also refers to part of the Temperance movement, which sought to make alcohol illegal. This gave rise to prohibitionists, who were supporters of prohibition. The latter already had a few successes to their credit. By 1905, three US states had already banned alcohol. By 1912, the number of states had risen to nine, and by 1916, prohibition was already part of the legislation in 26 of the 48 states that made up the United States.
After the federal law was repealed, some states continued to enforce prohibition, such as Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi, which were still "dry" in 1948. Mississippi, where alcohol had been made illegal in 1907, was the last state to repeal prohibition, in 1966.
As soon as the Volstead Act was passed, the strong demand from American consumers was met. The existence of a large potential market attracted interest in neighbouring Canada and Europe. The export trade, which was perfectly legal, was organised from the "bridgeheads" of the large Canadian distilleries, the British possessions of Bermuda, the Bahamas and Belize, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago where Canadian, French and British spirits converged before being loaded onto "rum runners" for delivery to the neighbouring continent.

Organised crime and The Untouchables
Many prominent American figures and politicians admitted to possessing alcohol during Prohibition. This contradiction between legislation and commonly accepted practices fuelled widespread contempt among the population for the state authorities, who were considered to be highly hypocritical. Satire took many forms, including famous films such as Keystone Kops. Certain exceptional figures found favour with the American people. These included Eliot Ness and his crack team of Treasury agents, nicknamed "The Untouchables". Another exception was the duo of Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, Prohibition agents in New York, simply nicknamed "Izzy and Moe". The American press gave extensive coverage to the qualities of these rare examples of probity: Ness's proverbial honesty, combined with his talent for public relations, and the more eccentric and covert, but highly effective, methods of Izzy and Moe.
Prohibition provided an attractive opportunity for organised crime to set up import channels, factories and even an illegal distribution network for alcoholic beverages in the United States, particularly through speakeasies. In Chicago, Al Capone was one of the leaders of this alcohol trafficking, greatly strengthening his criminal empire with the profits from illegal alcohol sales. Eliot Ness opposed Capone in a battle that became legendary. However, he was unable to bring down the criminal for serious offences (alcohol sales or murder), but had to resort to invoking "inalienable human rights" to bring Al Capone down under federal law, bypassing legislative jurisdictions (corrupt judges protecting Capone at the local level). Capone was given the maximum sentence (10 years).
As alcohol production had fallen into criminal hands or was carried out by unregulated clandestine manufacturers, the quality of the final product varied greatly. As a result, there were numerous cases of drinkers suffering from blindness or severe brain damage after ingesting "bathtub gin" concocted from industrial alcohol and other chemical poisons. One memorable incident involved a patent medicine made from Jamaican ginger, better known to consumers as "Jake". It had a very high alcohol content and allowed those who consumed it to circumvent the alcohol ban. The US Treasury Department demanded changes to the formula to make it undrinkable. Some unscrupulous Jake dealers adulterated their product with an industrial plasticiser in an attempt to circumvent government tests. As a result, tens of thousands of victims suffered paralysis of the hands and feet, often permanently. Amateur distillation of liquor was not without danger for the producer himself, as the primitive distillation equipment sometimes exploded, causing fires and devastation.

Conclusion:
Prohibition led to an increase in wine consumption for various reasons. Doctors were allowed to prescribe alcohol. Production for religious consumption also favoured wine. Finally, each household was allowed to produce 200 gallons (1,135 litres) of wine per year for personal use. During this period, wine became more popular than beer and spirits for the first time.