by Brian G. Daigle "…perhaps I may trouble you annually to about the same amount, this being a very favorite wine, and habit having rendered the light and high flavored wines a necessary of life with me." – Thomas Jefferson “Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.” ― John Keats, in a letter to his sister Fanny, 1819 I didn’t grow up around much wine, and I have had times in life where I’ve been cautious about alcohol, most particularly during my high school and college years. Into graduate school, where I was placed amidst men and women who took life seriously but virtue even more seriously, I began to consider the history, philosophy, and practice of enjoying and creating wine. Over the past fifteen years I have sought to better understand “my wine palate.” What do I like? Why? What do I think about it all? I have tried to be thoughtful about wine, because I believe what Socrates said about life in his final days on earth is true about everything in life: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And so it is equally true that the unexamined habit is not worth continuing, and the unexamined bottle is not worth drinking. I have enjoyed being around people who are true experts in this field, gleaning what I can and asking how it is I may have the same passion and commitment to the things I love, and also doing a bit of reading and documentary-watching about wine. I am a proud novice. As a faithful novice, who will likely remain a novice on this particular topic, there are ten important truths I’ve discovered about wine: 10. The best wine is the one you like. Getting to know what you like in wine is about getting to know yourself. Don’t worry about what the market or friends or magazines may say. The best wine is the one you like. It’s the one you choose for that meal or that occasion, and it is most especially the one you most enjoy when you get the opportunity to make that choice again. Know thyself, and know thy wine. You don’t have to be an aspiring, or even an actual, sommelier to enjoy wine. You just have to be thoughtful. William S. Benwell states, “The soft extractive note of an aged cork being withdrawn has the true sound of a man opening his heart.” (Benwell, Journey to Wine in Victoria, Melbourne)
9. The price of a wine doesn’t make it better. Pretension has often driven our cultural imagination of wine, and so, as with many other things, we can sometimes believe the lie that a higher price tag means “better.” This is not the case with many things, and it is most certainly not the case with wine. Set your limit, work within your limit to see what is possible for your wine experience, and find what you like at the amount you’re willing to spend. In a strange way, I find great joy in finding the $8 bottle I love, and I love tasting the $250 bottle I probably would have never purchased, and still would never purchase because, well, I just don’t enjoy it. 8. Wine can ruin your life. There is power in many things, on many levels. And as with any powerful thing, too much of it or enjoying it in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons can ruin your life. Wine is the same way. The great English poet George Herbert writes, “Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame, / When once it is within thee; but before / Mayst rule it, as thou list; and pour the shame, / Which it would pour on thee, upon the floor. / It is most just to throw that on the ground, / Which would throw me there, if I keep the round.” (Herbert in his "Perirrhanterium") 7. Wine can make your life better. Consider wise words. “When a man drinks wine with dinner, he begins to be better pleased with himself.” (Plato), “Good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people,” and “Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.” (William Shakespeare), “Whenever a man is tired, wine is a great restorer of strength.” (Homer), and “Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues.” (Johann Wolfgang van Goethe) 6. Wine is an art and philosophy. Robert Louis Stevenson writes, “Wine is bottled poetry.” And Louis Pasteur states, “A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.” And like any art (and philosophy) it can be used for sordid gain and influence. There is money in wine, and that means there is a great possibility of corruption in wine. The same is true of education, religion, healthcare, and technology. Be a knowledgeable, thoughtful, and mildly skeptical journeyman through whatever vineyard you choose to trod. 5. Wine is an amplifier. If you are prone to anger, it will amplify and draw this out; if you are prone to joy and laughter, wine too will bring this out. Know thyself, and know how wine will amplify your virtues or vices. Let win, if it amplifies anything, amplify your gratitude. Chesterton instructs, “…the proper form of thanks to it is some form of humility and restraint: we should thank God for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them.” 4. Wine can only be enjoyed with the right motivation. Why we love or enjoy and participate in something is just as important as what we love or enjoy or participate in. If we engage wine with a misaimed motivation toward the kind of comfort wine cannot give, we will ruin it and ourselves. If we engage wine with a view toward understanding, balance, prudence, virtue, and joy, we will find that in the bottle. 3. Wine is about relationships. Wine has always been about creating and building relationships, sometimes for the better and sometimes for worse (e.g. our relationship to the land, the culture, a particular religion, our own fears, our neighbor, food, etc.). Watch and see what kinds of relationships wine is building in your life. Are those bonds worth creating? Are those the relationships you want (e.g. relationship to emotions, people, family, time, habits, religion, habits, etc.)? W.E.P. French directs our gaze, “Here’s to the corkscrew – a useful key to unlock the storehouse of wit, the treasury of laughter, the front door of fellowship, and the gate of pleasant folly.” 2. Wine may not get better with age, and that is a lesson for all our lives. “You’re like a fine wine: you only get better with age.” This is an often-enough stated metaphor. But the metaphor goes both ways, and that should be a good lesson for our lives. Wine may actually not get better with age, as it is possible for a human to not get better with age. Like wine, humans can get sour, bitter, and almost unbearable with age. Therefore we must, like with wine, consider the ingredients and elements that go into making someone better with age, and if we want to get better with age, we must imbibe those more than anything. Francis Bacon wisely quips, “Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.” 1. Wine is a word. In the western tradition, wine is inextricably bound to our relationship with the divine. The German theologian and priest Martin Luther states, “Beer is made by men, wine by God!” Wine is, and will always be, a word in a dialogue between the divine and the human. This is most especially true in the Christian tradition, in particular in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions which hold to a high view of both wine and the Eucharist. Wine is a divine word, and the Divine Word ought to be deeply understood for wine to be most fully appreciated.
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