quotations about wine
Inevitably I came to associate any wine I met with a specific place and a particular slant of history. I learned to perceive more than could be deduced from an analysis of the physical elements in the glass. For me, an important part of the pleasure of wine is its reflection of the total environment that produced it. If I find in a wine no hint of where it was grown, no mark of the summer when the fruit ripened, and no indication of the usages common among those who made it, I am frustrated and disappointed. Because that is what a good, honest wine should offer.
GERALD ASHER
introduction, A Vineyard in My Glass
The vine bears three bunches of grapes: the first is that of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, the third of violence.
EPICTETUS
Fragments
Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
HOMER
The Odyssey
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
attributed, The Grape Escapes
Wine is very life to man if taken in moderation. Does he really live who lacks the wine which was created for his joy?
BEN SIRA
Sirach 31:27
In vino veritas, the Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote. In wine is truth. It's an old Latin phrase making fun of people who speak their minds under the influence of alcohol.... Today, in vino veritas has been embraced by wine lovers as a positive, or at least a nuanced, statement. There is always that negative connotation of loose-lipped inebriation, but it also hints of a more positive truth, hidden within ourselves and revealed through wine's mystical quality to elevate our spirit, as the wine we take at communion brings us closer to God.
DAVE MCINTYRE
"In Vino Veritas", WineLine, June 4, 2018
A wine is ready when you can't bear to wait for it any longer.
KAREN MACNEIL
The Wine Bible
Great wine is great wine, regardless of the packaging; sadly the converse is also true.
CHRISTOPHER RECKFORD
"Box Wine -- Not that bad at all", Jamaica Observer, June 2, 2016
As a commodity, the value of wine is one that draws a lot of skepticism. The higher the price tag a wine has the further divorced its cost seems to be from its production. It's a reductive perspective, but certainly the most expensive wines command prices far removed from the cost of production; instead scarcity, demand, terroir, story, the market economy and -- hopefully -- quality are what drive prices higher.
SAM BEHREND
"Halo Effect Gives Wine Prices Wings", Wine Searcher, May 30, 2016
Wine fills every corner and crevice of my life. I love drinking, be it for work or pleasure. And after 20 years in the wine industry, vino and I are very old friends. Even when I'm not working I've been known to absent-mindedly swirl and sniff my tea, forgetting it was a mug in my hand and not the stem of a wine glass.
HELEN MCGINN
"How giving up booze for just one month banished our wine critic's wrinkles", The Daily Mail, February 5, 2016
Wine is for sharing. What's the fun of swirling, swishing, sloshing and yakking if my friends can't join in?
JENNIFER ROSEN
Waiter, There's a Horse in My Wine
Despite the much-friendlier climate that wine exists in these days, many people still feel a little intimidated by wine and food pairing. It is both super simple and super complex. The days of "red with meat and white with fish" are long gone as wines have evolved and our culinary avenues have widened. It is perfectly acceptable for you to ask for the restaurant's help. The staff has trained for this.
MARK TARBELL
"Is it OK or tacky to ask for a wine sample at a restaurant?", AZ Central, March 10, 2017
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever!
ARISTOPHANES
The Knights
Thou wine art the friend of the friendless, though a foe to all.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Mardi
Wine makes all things possible.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN
The Mystery Knight
For when the wine is in, the wit is out.
THOMAS BECON
Catechism
Wine is a great investment ... if you don't drink it.
VICKI DENIG
"Wine is a great investment ... if you don't drink it", Vine Pair, March 6, 2017
Wine is a little bottle of teleportation. It takes you where it was made. The more you drink wine, the more you start to realize this tastes like Italy, or this tastes like France. How the hell can Italy have a taste?! Wine, that's how.
V
"6 Reasons Wine is the Greatest Beverage Of All Time", V is for Vino
'Tis the wine that leads me on,
the wild wine
that sets the wisest man to sing
at the top of his lungs,
laugh like a fool -- it drives the
man to dancing ... it even
tempts him to blurt out stories
better never told.
HOMER
The Odyssey
In our egalitarian era, it's unpalatable to suggest that you have to bring something--knowledge, experience, even humility--to a wine, young or old, in order to "get it." But it's so. Not every wine is "Delicious!"
MATT KRAMER
"What You Bring to It", Wine Spectator, March 21, 2017