If you say "the Bible says 'wine' but it doesn't mean 'wine', it means 'fruit juice'", I don't see how that's any different from someone saying "the Bible says 'blood' but it doesn't mean 'blood', it means 'XYZ'". The basic principle of approaching the Bible text is to take it at its clear meaning. The Bible says what it says.

This, to me, is an example of how we hold to cultural ideas and values (in this case, ideas stemming from the 19th and 20th century abstinence movements in the U.S.) even when the Bible's teaching is something else.

I think you can make a case against drunkenness from the Bible, but you can't make a case for abstinence.

Lee