First, alcohol is a depressant for some people, not all people.
Second, millions if not billions of people imbibe alcohol and have done so for thousands of years without ill effects. Millions of people drink wine for pleasure without ill effects. Indeed, there is science that supports that drinking small amounts of alcohol once or twice a day is good for the heart.
By the way, what we know about wine and beer today is a result of monks preserving that knowledge. All the world re known wineries in France were once monasteries. Funny how alcohol wasn’t prohibited by the church for almost 2000 years until American protestants decided to turn everything upside down.
Third, fermentation is a natural process that occurs in nature without human manipulation. There is nothing evil about when yeast feeds on sugar and produces CO2 and alcohol as by-products. Is cheese evil? Is bread evil? The same process that goes into making fermented beverages also happens in bread and cheese making.
Fourth, there are plenty of foods other than wine that can make you sick, depressed or high without being processed by human beings.
Fifth, there is no biblical prohibition against imbibing fermented beverages. Like I said before, in that climate, if anybody macerated fruit to make juice, fermentation would have occurred naturally without any human intent. Go buy some grapes, mash them up, and let them sit out for a few days and you will smell the alcohol eventually. The reason why grape juice in the store doesn’t produce alcohol is because it has to be treated to kill the yeast or it would produce alcohol.
Sixth, if wine is evil, why is it part of the Holy Eucharist and Communion?
Why is it a central part of the Jewish holidays of Passover, the Sabbath, Purim?
There are far more religious and cultural traditions in support of wine than against it.
The extent of it varies.
Alcohol is a poison that the body has to get rid of.
It has no positive effects on the body.
Decay is a natural process as well.
We don't eat rotten food.
Ofcourse there are other foods (and alcohol isn't a food, it is a drug) that can make one sick.
None of them combined has done to destroy as many lives as alcohol has.
We use grape juice for our Lord's supper.
The wine in Passover is non-fermented since fermentation is a form of leaven and forbidden in the passover/feast of unleavened bread.