Wine Words

Wine has been an inspiration for poets, philosophers, kings, priests and just everyday people for ages, and remains an object of affection and reflection today. Here is a small sampling of musings on the nectar of the gods for your thinking and drinking pleasure

Wine to me is passion. It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It’s culture. It’s the essence of civilization and the art of living. – Robert Mondavi

Wine Descriptions

Wine is life. – Petronius
Wine is sunshine, held together by water. – Galileo
Wine is the blood of France. – Louis Bertall, La Vigne, 1878
Wine is bottled poetry. – Robert Louis Stevenson
God made only water, but man made wine. – Victor Hugo, 1856
Wine is a chemical symphony. – Maynard Amerine
Wine is the divine juice of September – Voltaire
Wine is liquid food. – Robert Mondavi
Wine is soul food. – Jim Trezise
Wine is the most civilized and civilizing of beverages. – Leon Adams
Wine, one of the noblest cordials in nature. – John Wesley (Methodist priest)
Wine is a passport to the world. –Thom Elkjer
Come quickly, I am tasting the stars! – Dom Perignon, upon discovering Champagne
Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man. – Plato
Beer is made by men, wine by God. – Martin Luther
Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life cycle comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not treated with reasonable respect it will sicken and die. – Julia Child
Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind…Making good wine is a skill. Fine wine is an art. – Robert Mondavi
Wine, land, agricultural skills, and entrepreneurialism are gifts from God—the creator has entrusted them to us because, with our sensitivity and honesty, we make them a true source of joy. – Pope Francis, January 23, 2024

Wine and Nature

And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. – Genesis 9:20
Good loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wine: soil, sun, rain, and the hand of man – Anonymous
The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars. – Benjamin Franklin
Wine being among the earliest luxuries in which we indulge ourselves, it is desirable that it should be made here and we have every soil, aspect and climate of the best wine countries. – Thomas Jefferson
We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good. – Thomas Jeffreson
By making this wine vine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt. – Thomas Jefferson
Grapes are the most noble and challenging of fruits.– Malcolm Dunn, Head Gardener to the 7th Viscount Powerscourt, c 1867
We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven on our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. – Benjamin Franklin
Wine is farm juice fermented into liquid art. – Jim Trezise

Wine and Food

A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine. – Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized. – Andre Simon
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. – Psalms 104:15
The table has its pleasures and wine makes for a cheerful life. – Ecclesiastes 9:6
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red. – Psalms75:8
It was my uncle George who discovered that wine was a food well in advance of modern medical thought. – P.G. Wodehouse, 1934
Champagne is appropriate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. – Madeline Puckette
The best wine is the wine you like best. – Jim Trezise
A gourmet meal without a glass of wine seems tragic to me somehow. – Kathy Mattea
The table has its pleasures, and wine makes for a cheerful life. – Ecclesiastes 9:6
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry. Ecclesiastes 10:19
My manner of living is plain, a glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and such as will be content to partake of that are always welcome. – George Washington
My idea of heaven is to sit in a favorite restaurant with cheese and a glass of wine. – Wendy Wasserman
Wine is the intellectual part of a meal, meats are merely the material part. – Alexander Dumas
Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures. – Michael Broadbent.
The smell of wine, oh how much more delicate, cheerful, gratifying, celestian and delicious it is than that of oil. – Rabelias, Gargantua
I have lived temperately, eating little animal food. Vegetables constitute my principal diet. I double, however, the doctor’s glass and a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend. – Thomas Jefferson
I feast on wine and bread, and feasts they are. – Michelangelo
Great wine without great food is experiencing only half the pleasure. – Michael Mondavi
In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary. – Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. — Psalms 104:14-15

Wine and Attitude

Wine…cheereth God and man. – Judges 9:13
Life is too short to drink bad wine. – Everyone
Wine gives courage and makes men more apt for passion. – Ovid
Wine rejoices the heart of man, and Joy is the Mother of all virtue. – Goethe
Fill every glass, for wine inspires us, and fires us with courage, love and joy – John Gay
He who loves not wine,women and son remains a fool his whole life long. – Martin Luther
When there is plenty of wine, sorry and worry take wing. – Ovid
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine. – Thomas Aquinas
Excellent wine generates enthusiasm. And whatever you do with enthusiasm is generally successful. – Phillippe de Rothschild
A man will be eloquent if you give him good wine. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
A glass of good wine is a gracious creature, and reconciles poor mortality to itself, and that is what few things can do. – Sir Walter Scott
Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance. – Benjamin Franklin
I drink to the general joy of the whole table. – William Shakespeare
Wine gives great pleasure; and every pleasure is of itself a good. – Samuel Johnson
Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil. – Lord Byron
Wine is only sweet to happy men. – John Keats
A waltz and a glass of wine invite an encore. – Johann Strauss
A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in retrospect. – Robert Louis Stevenson
Be careful to trust a person who does not like wine. – Karl Marx
Here’s to the corkscrew – a useful key to unlock the storehouse of wit, the treasure of laughter, the front door of fellowship, and the gate of pleasant folly. – W. E. P. French
Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin. – Napoleon
Clearly, the pleasures wines afford are transitory – but so are those of the ballet, or of a musical performance. Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living. – Napoleon
Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the onward flight, drives dull care away, and teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes. – Horace
Where there is no wine, there is no love – Euripides
Champagne is the one thing that gives me zest when I’m tired. – Bridgette Bardot
My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne. – John Maynard Keynes
In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it. – Napoleon
Good wine, well drunk, can lend majesty to the human spirit. — M.F.K. Fisher
A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world. – Louis Pasteur
Wine brings light to the hidden secrets of the soul. – Horace
No poem was ever written by a drink of water. – Horace
Wine…cheereth God and man. – Judges 9:13
Wine that maketh glad the heart of man – Psalms 104: 15
Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing. – Ernest Hemingway

Wine and Moderation

Wine, when taken without excess, is a tonic for the muscles and a stimulant for the mind. – Dr. Widal
Eat bread at pleasure, drink wine by measure. – Randle Cotgrove
No nation is drunken where wine is cheap, and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. – Thomas Jefferson
Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used – Shakespeare
Wine was given by God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober. It is the best medicine when it has moderation to direct it. Wine was given to restore the body’s weakness, not to overturn the soul’s strength. – St. John Chrysostum (4th century preacher)
Whether wine is a nourishment, medicine or poison, is a matter of dosage. – Paracelsus (1493-1541)
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for they stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. – Proverbs 5:23
If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good? – Cardinal Richeleu
Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy. – Alexander Fleming (1881-1955, the Scottish bacteriologist credited with discovering Penicillin in 1928).

Wine, Family and Friends

Water divides the people of the world. Wine unites them. – Anonymous
From wine what sudden friendship springs. – John Gay
Wine and friends are a great blend. – Ernest Hemingway
Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures. – Michael Broadbent
What is better than to sit at the end of the day and drink wine with friends, or substitutes for friends? – James Joyce
What through youth gave love and roses, age still leaves us friends and wine. – Thomas Moore
All wine associations are occasions when people are at their best, with relaxation, contentment, leisurely meals, and the free flow of ideas. – Hugh Johnson
A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover. – Clifton Fadiman
A house where neither wine nor welcome is served to friends, soon will have none. – Rob Hutchison
When wine enlivens the heart, may friendship surround the table. – Anonymous
I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial. – Thomas Jefferson
In water one sees one’s own fact; but in wine one beholds the heart of another. – French proverb
Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart. – Aeschylus
Wine is a friend, wine is a joy; and, like sunshine, wine is the birthright of all. – Andre Simon
Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age. – Pope John XXIII
The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine. — Thucydides, Greek Historian, 5th Century
If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons we should drink: Good wine – a friend – or being dry – Or lest we should be by and by – Or any other reason why – Henry Aldrich
A warm fire, the wind and the rain outside, a good bottle of wine, and I’m with you. – Gregory Peck in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Wine and Humor

Life is too short to drink bad wine. — Everyone
The fine wine leaves you with something pleasant; the ordinary wine just leaves. – Maynard Amerine
It takes a lot of beer to make good wine. — Many winemakers
I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food. – W.C. Fields
A typical wine writer was once described as someone with a typewriter who was looking for his name in print, a free lunch, and a way to write off his wine cellar. It’s a dated view. Wine writers now use computers. – Frank Prial, The New York Times, January 21, 1998
I like Champagne, because it always tastes as though my foot’s asleep. – Art Buchwald, American humorist
During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. We were compelled to live on food and water for several days. Cuthbert J. Witllie (W.C. Fields) in My Little Chickadee, 1940
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. – Henny Youngman
Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep well and you will not sin. Avoid sin and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved. – Anonymous, Medieval German saying
There are no standards of taste in wine, cigars, poetry, prose, etc. Each man’s own taste is the standard, and a majority vote cannot decide for him or in any slightest degree affect the supremacy of his own standard. – Mark Twain, 1895
Wine, n. Fermented grape-juice known in the Women’s Christian Union as “liquor”, sometimes as “rum”. Wine, madame, is God’s next best gift to man. –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911.
Good wine ruins the purse; bad wine ruins the stomach. – Spanish saying
The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations. – French proverb
A woman drove me to drink, and I never even had the courtesy to thank her. – W. C. Fields
Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. – W. C. Fields
Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it. – Anonymous (but Jim Trezise agrees)
My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle. — Henny Youngman
I’ve decided to stop drinking with creeps. I decided to drink only with friends. I’ve lost 30 pounds. – Ernest Hemingway
Save New York Water. Drink New York Wine. – Jim Trezise
I was in love with a beautiful blonde once. She drove me to drink; that’s the only thing I’m indebted to her for. – W. C. Fields
I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it—unless I’m thirsty. – Madam Lilly Bollinger, when asked when she drinks Champagne.

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