Why are beverages such as beer and wine always clified as "alcohol"?

Just a strange thing I noticed about American culture, is that the media and government here only refer to such drinks as "alcohol". As if it's alcoholic content is the only thing that matters. This seems rather unsophisticated, if you ask me. My family lives in Hungary where even strong distilled liquor is commonly sold in corner grocery stores and no license is needed to either buy or sell the stuff there, nor does that seem to cause any problems. Beer and wine do contain life-sustaining nutrients so people there naturally clify them as a food, not a drug. There are lots of people who pay a lot of money for that special bottle of wine or six-pack of microbrew rather than for some swill. If it was just all about the alcohol, wouldn't we simply be content with a cheap bottle of vodka and a bowl of Jesus Juice?