It is a glorious day and I am in love with life. We often say we “love” – our car, our house, our yard, our boat, our friends, sometimes our job, but love is a word that has been used and misused for centuries. When we use the word for our children it is all encompassing. When it is used to describe our feelings for another it recaptures emotions we feel – a glorious chemistry that we wished we could bottle. In essence – that is the basis for this column. Love in a bottle or love shared.
Fine wine is usually made by a wine maker who is passionate about his or her work utilizing grapes grown with loving care. Wine should be enjoyed with another. It tastes best if you share it with friends or someone you love.
Recently, at a wine seminar I was conducting I was asked the typical question: “What is your favorite wine? ” I always had the answer for a white wine – Joseph Drouhin Le Montrachet Marquis de la Guiche 1985, but this wine is all gone and after that almost any vintage of Le Montrachet will do as a favorite. I am also extremely fond of Corton Charlemagne) For my red wine response I used to respond -” Quintessa, a Napa Valley Meritage” Then I tasted Clark-Claudon made by friends of mine. This may be, for me, the perfect red wine. It is the embodiment of “love in a bottle” and must be shared with friends or a loved one. Come by Elizabeth’s and taste this incredible wine. We are the only restaurant and wine shop in the world to offer it by the glass. Clark-Claudon is the wine I drank after an “H” storm blew through town. Before the storm’s arrival I had a glass of Krug Champagne and then copious quantities of our “House” Champagne- Perrier- Jouet.
Am I alone in my love of wine? I don’t think so. There have been songs and quotes about wine throughout history.
Some of the more interesting quotes about wine:
“Wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson
“It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes, and wine and love have ever been allies.” Ovid- Roman poet
“Life is too short to drink bad wine.” I always thought this was a quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau, however, research also attributes it to Winston Churchill and to an old Slovak saying. Anonymous
“It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.” Abigail Van Buren
“Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of good wine.” St. Thomas Aquinas“I shall drink no wine before it’s time! OK, it is time.” Groucho Marx
“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
“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” Benjamin Franklin
“Wine to the poet is a winged steed; those who drink water gain but little speed.” Nicaentus – Greek epigramatic poet
“Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures…” M.F.K. Fisher
“Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. This is one of the disadvantages of wine…” Samuel Johnson
“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.” Ernest Hemingway
“My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne.” John Maynard Keynes
“Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep, and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved.” Medieval German saying
“Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.” Anonymous
“Compromises are for relationships, not wine.” Sir Robert Scott Caywood
“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” Benjamin Franklin
“I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food” W. C. Fields
“Gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well drink a glass of champagne.” Paul Claudel, French Poet, playwright and diplomat.
“Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil.” Lord Byron
“When it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away the vintage charts and invest in a corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is the drinking.” Alexis Lichine
“I have enjoyed great health at a great age because everyday since I can remember, I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles.” Attributed to a Bishop of Seville.
“It takes a lot of beer to make good wine” Lou Preston, Preston Vineyards (this refers to the custom of beer drinking after the laborious day at the winery making the wine. Perhaps enjoyed most by the French in Burgundy. I have consumed many a beer with winemakers after a day’s work or tasting in France, California and Oregon.)
“A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.” Clifton Fadiman
“Wine…offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased” Ernest Hemingway
“Wine is life.” Petronius, Roman Writer
W.B. Yeats
A DRINKING SONG
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,Lily Bollinger was asked “When do you drink champagne?”, and replied:
“I only drink champagne 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 am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”“Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.” Dorothy Parker
“I am drinking the stars!” Dom Perignon, on his first sip of bubbly Champagne
“Who took the cork out of my lunch?” W.C. Fields
“Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of good wine” St. Thomas Aquinas
“Wine in itself is an excellent thing. Pope Pius XII
Enjoy a glass of wine this evening. A toast:
Friendship’s the wine of life.
Let’s drink of it and to it.Or if appropriate, our favorite toast at Elizabeth’s “May all your pains be Champagnes.”
A portion of this first appeared in NORTH BEACH SUN FALL 2004
©2009
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Leonard Logan's passion for wine, love of good food, and knack for entertaining has garnered him a reputation on both a local and national level. As the owner of a restaurant that has won countless awards-from "The Best Fine Dining Wine Restaurant in the United States" (Santé Magazine, 2003) to "The Award of Ultimate Distinction" (The Wine Enthusiast, 2004 and 2005) - Logan has been honing his craft since his college days at Duke University as an amateur caterer for football games and college parties. |
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