CARTE DU VINE

The most complete wine cellar service available – As author of the book THE BEST CELLAR, Jeff Smith prepares a physical inventory of every bottle in your cellar and arranges your collection by region and type of wine. A great compliment to your new custom wine cellar.

 

LEARN ABOUT WINE

The source for wine education and events – Founder Ian Blackburn is a Certified Wine Professional with such credentials as Sommelier, *JWE, CSW, candidate for the Masters of Wine program, and co-author of the book THE PLEASURE OF WINE.

 

LIQUID SYSTEMS WINE RACKS

Liquid Systems Custom Wine Racks:  “Don’t Just Store it, Celebrate it!”

Liquid Systems is a Premium Made-To-Order custom wine rack that is MADE IN THE USA. Precision-manufactured architectural hardware.  Elevating your collection to the level it deserves!

 

CHAI CONSULTING

A wine collector services firm founded by Maureen Downey, serving clients worldwide. Maureen and her team of experts specialize in wine inventory-organization and management, fine and rare wine appraisal, valuation, and authentication. With their expertise and market knowledge, you’ll want Chai Consulting’s advisors on your side.

 

ROBERT PARKER ONLINE

The Independent Consumer’s Guide to Fine Wines – Robert Parker is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings, on a 100-point scale, and his extremely descriptive tasting notes, are published in his newsletter: The Wine Advocate. Enjoy his multifaceted website with an abundance of resources at your finger tips.

 

WINE-SEARCHER

Provides the fastest and easiest way to find who is selling a wine, to compare prices between wine stores, and to value wines.

 

WINE CELLAR SERVICE & WINE CELLAR REPAIR

First class wine cellar refrigeraton system service and wine cellar refrigeration system repair in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara County’s. For Premier Cru Wine Cellars refrigeration system Service, Maintenance, and Repair Department, simply dial (310) 289-1221, Ext. 3 or log-on to www.winecellarrepair.com . . . simple, fast, and convenient.

LARUSSA  A+V  DESIGN

Audio | Video | Control | Network | Security

World-Class Contemporary Environments

For those who truly only want the very best in home technology:  LaRussa A+V Design, established in 1995, provides highly-customized electronic systems, specializing in the luxury home market. They offer an exclusive level of consulting, design and installation services to interior designers, architects and home owners. They are a low-volume, boutique style business, which allows them to maintain a commitment to excellence and the finest in workmanship; a lost art… Highly skilled and professional field technicians and installers comprise The LaRussa A+V Team who are among the very best in the Home Entertainment & Home Automation industry and a trusted service provider to a loyal clientele since ’95.

FERGUSON GALLERY • Santa Monica Showroom

Contemporary environments call for exceptional domestic experiential offerings.  Ferguson Bath, Kitchen, and Lighting Gallery in West Los Angeles at 2202 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404 reveals the futuristic comfortable home interiors of the future & TODAY!  CALL (310) 829-1062 and Make an Appointment to view your new home-interior and elevate your lifestyle to the next level… Simply click the  LINK HERE or above.

Statesmen and Philosophers

“Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.”
– Aeschylus, Fragment 384. Bartlett’s Quotations, 1901 edition

 

“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, Five Reasons for Drinking. Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, 1995

 

“Fine wine is a necessity of life for me…”
– Attributed to Thomas Jefferson

“Fine wine is a necessity of life for me.”  – or other variations, were paraphrased inaccurately from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote while at Monticello to Thomas Appleton on January 14, 1816.

The Original Writing beholding the misquoted saying: “Fine wine is a necessity of life for me…”

“For the present I confine myself to the physical want of some good Montepulciano; and your friendship has heretofore supplied me with that which was so good that I naturally address my want to you. In your letter of May 1.05. you mention that what you then sent me was produced on grounds formerly belonging to the orders of Jesuits and sold for the benefit of the government in 1773. at the time that that institution was abolished. I hope it has preserved it’s reputation, & the quality of it’s wines. I send this letter to my friend John Vaughan of Philadelphia and inclose with it to him 50.D. to be remitted to you and I pray you to send me it’s amount in Montepulciano, in black bottles, well corked & cemented, and in strong boxes, addressed to the Collector of any port from Boston to the Chesapeake, to which the first opportunity occurs: Norfolk & Richmond being always to be preferred, if a conveyance equally early offers. But the warm season will be so fast advancing, when you receive this, that no time will be to be lost. 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 to Thomas Appleton, Monticello, 14 January 1816”

 

“I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens.”
– 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 Jefferson, Smithsonian Museum, 1996

 

“‘I think it would be well,’ he told John Adlum, ‘to push the culture of that grape [a black grape, the Alexander] without losing time and effort in search of foreign vines, which it will take centuries to adapt to our soil and climate.'”
– Thomas Jefferson, Smithsonian Museum, 1996

 

“I have lived temperately . . . I double the doctor’s recommendation of a glass and a half of wine each day and even treble it with a friend.”
– Thomas Jefferson

 

“Jefferson ran the place with only eleven servants (Abigail Adams had needed 30!), brought up from Monticello. There were no more powdered wigs, much less ceremony. Washington and Adams, according to Republican critics, had kept up almost a royal court. Jefferson substituted Republican simplicity – to a point. He had a French chef, and French wines he personally selected. His salary was $25,000 per year – a princely sum, but the expenses were also great. In 1801 Jefferson spent $6500 for provisions and groceries, $2700 for servants (some of whom were liveried), $500 for Lewis’s salary, and $3,000 for wine.”
– Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, 1997

 

“‘In vino veritas,’ said the sage…. Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly … they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the water they loved to drink. This good man, Noah, having seen that all his contemporaries had perished by this unpleasant drink, took a dislike to it; and God, to relieve his dryness, created the vine and revealed to him the art of making ‘le vin’ By the aid of this liquid, he revealed more and more truth.”
– Attributed to Benjamin Franklin in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998

 

“Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.”
– Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard’s Almanac

 

“‘Twas Noah who first planted the vine and mended his Morals by drinking its wine.”
– Attributed to Benjamin Franklin

 

“We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. The miracle in question was only performed to hasten the operation, undercircumstances of necessity, which required it.
– Attributed to Benjamin Franklin

 

“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”
– Attributed to Benjamin Franklin

 

“Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things: old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”
– Francis Bacon, Apothegms, 1624, Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition

 

“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

 

“Hardly did it appear, than from my mouth it passed into my heart.”
– Abbe de Challieu, 1715, upon first tasting Champagne; Wine on Line

 

“A single glass of champagne imparts a feeling of exhilaration. The nerves are braced; the imagination is stirred, the wits become more nimble.”
– Attributed to Winston Churchill in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998

 

“Only in regard to wine did he have no limits.”
– Confucius, Analects, Book 10, quoted in Bartlett’s Quotations, Centennial Edition, 1955

 

“Wine is an appropriate article for mankind, both for the healthy body and for the ailing man.”
– Attributed to Hippocrates

 

“Beer is made by men, wine by God!”
– Attributed to Martin Luther

 

“He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.”
– Attributed to Martin Luther; probably J. H. Voss

 

“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

 

“Fermentation is correlative with life. Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”
– Attributed to Louis Pasteur

 

“Boys should abstain from all use of wine until their eighteenth year, for it is wrong to add fire to fire.”
– Plato, Laws, II. Dictionary of Quotations, Bergen Evans, 1968

 

“In vino veritas [In wine is truth].”
– Proverb quoted by Plato, Symposium 217, Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition

 

“No thing is more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God.”
– Attributed to Plato

 

“What is better adapted than the festive use of wine in the first place to test and in the second place to train the character of a man, if care be taken in the use of it? What is there cheaper or more innocent?”
– Plato, Bartlett’s Quotations, Centennial Edition, 1955

 

“Wine is a composition of mood and light.”
– Galileo

 

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”
– Galileo

 

“Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.”
– Attributed to Pope John XXIII

 

“You can be killed, you can be deprived of wine until the end of your days; but no God, no man, can take from you the last sliding residue of a Bordeaux on your tongue. . . . It is a pure event.”
– Attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre

 

“Champagne, the great civilizer.”
– Attributed to Talleyrand in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998

 

“There is no gladness without wine.”
– Babylonian Talmud: Pesachim

 

“Up to the age of forty eating is beneficial.”
– After forty, drinking. The Talmud

 

“Wherever wine is lacking, medicines become necessary.”
– The Talmud

 

“Wine nourishes, refreshes and cheers.”
– The Talmud

 

“Wine will make a man intelligent.”
– Babylonian Talmud: Joma

 

“Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang: Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long.”
– Attributed to W. M. Thackeray, A Credo

 

“The wine of Love is music, And the feast of Love is song: And when Love sits down to the banquet, Love sits long.”
– James Thomson, The Vine, Stanza 1. Bartlett’s Quotations, Centennial Edition, 1955

 

“Wine is the divine juice of September.”
– Francois Voltaire

 

“The French regard wine as a national possession all their very own, just like their 360 varieties of cheese and their culture.”
– Roland Barthes, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996

 

“Writing in my sixty-fourth year, I can truthfully say that since I reached the age of discretion I have consistently drunk more than most people would say is good for me. Nor did I regret it. Wine has been for me a firm friend and a wise counselor. Often…wine has shown me matters in their true perspective, and has, as though by the touch of a magic wand, reduced great disasters to small inconveniences. Wine has lit up for me the pages of literature, and revealed in life romance lurking in the commonplace. Wine has made me bold but not foolish; has induced me to say silly things but not to do them.”
– Duff Cooper, Old Men Forget

 

Poets, Writers, and Anonymous

“A man, fallen on hard times, sold his art collection but kept his wine cellar. When asked why he did not sell his wine, he said, ‘A man can live without art, but not without culture.'”
– Anonymous.

 

“By wine we are generous made; It furnishes fancy with wings; Without it we should ne’er have had Philosophers, poets or kings.”
– Anonymous, Wine and Wisdom, 1710.

 

“God in His goodness sent the grapes, To cheer both great and small; Little fools will drink too much, And great fools not at all.”
– Anonymous, source not recorded.

 

“How is champagne made? By sheer genius, sir, sheer genius!”
– Conversation at White’s Club, London, reported in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“She gets to keep the chalet and the Rolls, I want the Montrachet.”
– Anonymous, Forbes Magazine, May 6, 1996.

 

“Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it.”
– Anonymous.

 

“I know never to take a wine for granted. Drawing a cork is like attendance at a concert or at a play that one know well, when there is all the uncertainty of no two performances ever being quite the same. That is why the French say, ‘There are no good wines, only good bottles.'”
– Gerald Asher, On Wine, 1982.

 

“I made a mental note to watch which bottle became empty soonest, sometimes a more telling evaluation system than any other.”
– Gerald Asher, On Wine, 1982.

 

“The First Growths of Bordeaux were not selected competitively in the course of a gigantic taste-off. They selected themselves, in a way, by doing the right things at the right time.”
– Gerald Asher, On Wine, 1982.

 

“The soft extractive note of an aged cork being withdrawn has the true sound of a man opening his heart.”
– William Samuel Benwell, Journey to Wine in Victoria, Melbourne.

 

“Do not force your opinion of a wine down the throats of your guests. Patiently listen to theirs. You will have lots of fun.”
– Charles Walter Berry, A Miscellany of Wine, 1932, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“We are now to have a Magnum of 1868 Romanee….we might all stand in silence for half a minute, glass in hand, to offer heartfelt thanks to the Giver of such good things.”
– Charles Walter Berry, Viniana, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“I 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’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I am thirsty.”
– 1961 newspaper interview; many sources, including Wine On Line.

 

“Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young, makes weariness forget his toil.”
– Lord Byron.

 

“‘Tis pity wine should be so deleterious, For tea and coffee leave us much more serious.”
– Lord Byron.

 

“Hardly did it appear, than from my mouth it passed into my heart.”
– Abbe de Challieu, 1715, upon first tasting Champagne; Wine on Line.

 

“Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.”
– Andre Simon, Commonsense of Wine

 

“Only in regard to wine did he have no limits.”
– Confucius, Analects, Book 10, quoted in Bartlett’s Quotations, Centennial Edition, 1955.

 

“There is nothing like wine for conjuring up feelings of contentment and goodwill. It is less of a drink than an experience, an evocation, a spirit. It produces sensations that defy description.”
– Thomas Conklin, Wine: A Primer.

 

“Wine … the intellectual part of the meal.”
– Alexandre Dumas, Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, 1873, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“Where there is no wine there is no love.”
– Attributed to Euripedes.

 

“A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.”
– Clifton Fadiman, NY Times, March 8, 1987.

 

“The great French white wine, Corton-Charlemagne, owes its existence, according to local legend, not to the emperor but to his wife. The red wines of Corton stained his white beard so messily that she persuaded him to plant vines that would produce white wines. Charlemagne ordered white grapes to be planted. Thus Corton-Charlemagne.”
– Clifton Fadiman, The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes.

 

“More than any other wine, Champagne is a luxury brand made and sold by a hard-headed, hard-working, rather cold-blooded bunch of people, fully aware that no one needs to drink Champagne, that its glorious patina needs constant polishing.”
– Nicholas Faith, The Story of Champagne, 1989.

 

“With good friends …. And good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask: When shall we live if not now?”
– M.F.K Fisher, The Art of Living, quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, James B. Simpson, 1997.

 

“From wine what sudden friendship springs!”
– John Gay, Fables; The Squire and his Cur, Part II, 1738.

 

“Fill ev’ry glass, for wine inspires us, And fires us With courage, love and joy. Women and wine should life employ. Is there ought else on earth desirous?”
– John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera, 1728.

 

“I had to cook a dinner glorious enough to complement the Lafite. It took four days.”
– Attributed to Gael Greene.

 

“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.”
– Attributed to Ernest Hemingway.

 

“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don’t want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”
– Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 1926.

 

“Wine … offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased.”
– Attributed to Ernest Hemingway.

 

“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.

 

“Some take their gold in minted mold, And some in harps hereafter, But give me mine in bubble fine and keep the change in laughter.”
– Oliver Herford.

 

“Baron James Rothschild sent Rossini [composer of The Barber of Seville, William Tell, etc.] some splendid grapes from his hothouse. Rossini, in thanking him, wrote, although your grapes are superb, I don t like my wine in capsules. Rothschild read this as an invitation to send him some of his celebrated Chateau-Lafite, which he proceeded to do.”
– Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone, In the Courts of Memory.

 

“Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.”
– Attributed to Homer, The Odyssey.

 

“Wine gives strength to weary men.”
– Attributed to Homer.

 

“I could not conjure up one melancholy fancy, upon a mutton chop and a glass of Champagne.”
– Jerome K. Jerome, Decanter, December 1997.

 

“All wine’s associations are with occasions when people are at their best; with relaxation, contentment, leisurely meals and the free flow of ideas.”
– Attributed to Hugh Johnson.

 

“To buy good wine and not look after it properly is like not polishing your Rolls-Royce.”
– Attributed to Hugh Johnson, NY Times Wine and the Net.

 

“Drink to me only with thine eyes, And, I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I’ll not look for wine.”
– Ben Jonson, The Forest, 1616, Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition.

 

“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
– Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek, 1946.

 

“When you drank it, you felt as if you were in communion with the blood of the earth itself.”
– Nikos Kazantzakis, quoted by Kermit Lynch in Adventures on the Wine Route, 1988.

 

“My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne.”
– Attributed to John Maynard Keynes.

 

“This wine is Mozart, that one is pure Wagner.”
– NY Times, October 13, 1985, quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, James B. Simpson, 1997.

 

“Wine has … inspired invention, animated religion, made men vociferous, nourished beliefs, kindled wrath, provoked love and lust and softened hard beds.”
– London Times, ‘Wine Merchants Uncorked’, September 3, 1993, quoted in Contemporary Quotations, James B. Simpson, 1997.

 

“This song of mine is a song of the vine To be sung by the glowing embers of wayside inns, When the rain begins To darken the Drear November.”
– Attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

“I intend to die in a tavern; let the wine be placed near my dying mouth, so that when the choirs of angels come, they may say, God be merciful to this drinker!”
– Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium. Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition.

 

“What find you better or more honorable than age? Take the preeminence of it in everything – in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree.”
– Attributed to Shakerley Marmion, The Antiquary.

 

“And we meet, with champagne and a chicken, at last.”
– Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, The Lover, 1748. Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition.

 

“What though youth gave love and roses, age still leaves us friends and wine.”
– Thomas Moore, National Airs, 1815, Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition.

 

“Just use a little red wine; it will get that club soda stain right out of there.”
– About Last Night.

 

“Is not wine the very essence of laughter?”
– Maurice des Ombiaux, Le Gotha des vins de France, 1925 in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“As for the wine, I sucked it all down in one draught, and it seemed to go straight into my veins and flow round my body like new blood.”
– Attributed to George Orwell.

 

“When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing.”
– Attributed to Ovid, The Art of Love (c. A.D. 8).

 

“Wine gives courage and makes men [more] apt for passion.”
– Attributed to Ovid, Quote Search.

 

“Three be the things I shall ne’er attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.”
– Attributed to Dorothy Parker, Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“There are two reasons for drinking wine…when you are thirsty, to cure it; the other, when you are not thirsty, to prevent it… prevention is better than cure.”
– Attributed to Tomas Love Peacock.

 

“The juice of the grape is the liquid quintessence of concentrated sunbeams.”
– Thomas Love Peacock quoted in Wine Quotations, Helen Exley, 1994.

“Nothing is so effective in keeping one young and full of lust as a discriminating palate thoroughly satisfied at least once a day.”
– Attributed to Angelo Pelligrini, The Unprejudiced Palate.

 

“Wine is an old man’s milk.”
– Antonio Perez, Aphorisms, Dictionary of Quotations, Bergen Evans, 1968.

 

“Then wine bottles were brought up, carefully sealed and labeled. ‘FALERNIAN, CONSUL OPIMIUS, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.’ While we were examining the labels, Trimalchio clapped his hands. ‘Wine has a longer life than us poor mortals,’ he sighed; so let us refresh our palates. Wine is life. I am giving you real Opimian.”
– Petronius, The Satyricon, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“When [wines] were good they pleased my sense, cheered my spirits, improved my moral and intellectual powers, besides enabling me to confer the same benefits on other people.”
– George Saintsbury, Notes on a Cellar Book.

 

“You needn’t tell me that a man who doesn’t love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either. He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.”
– Saki, ‘The Match Maker’, The Chronicles of Clovis, 1911.

 

“I am falser than vows made in wine.”
– Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act 3, Scene 5, line 73.

 

“Good wine needs no bush.”
– Shakespeare, As You Like It. Epilogue.

 

“If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true that a good play needs no epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues.”
– Shakespeare, As You Like It, Epilogue.

 

“Drink some wine ere you go: fare you well.”
– Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3, Scene 5.

 

“A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel; he drinks no wine.”
– Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 2.

 

“Every man shall eat in safety under his own vine what he plants, and sing the merry songs of peace to all his neighbors.”
– Shakespeare, Henry VIII.

 

“Had I but died an hour before this chance I had liv’d a blessed time; for, from this instant, There’s nothing serious in mortality, All is but toys; renown and grace is dead, The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.”
– Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3, line 98, 1606.

 

“The wine of life is drawn, and the meer lees Is left this vault to brag of.”
– Shakespeare. Macbeth.

 

“Do not fall in love with me; For I am falser than vows made in wine.”
– Shakespeare.

 

“Give me a bowl of wine: I have not that alacrity of spirit, nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.”
– Shakespeare, Richard III.

 

“Wine drinking is no occult art to be practiced only by the gifted few. Indeed, it is not an art at all. It is, or should be, the sober habit of every normal man and woman burdened with normal responsibilities and with a normal desire to keep their problems in perspective and themselves in good health.”
– Allan Sichel, The Penguin Book of Wines.

 

“If on my theme I rightly think, There are five reasons why men drink, — Good wine, a friend, because I ‘m dry, Or lest I should be by and by, Or any other reason why.”
– John Sirmond, Causae Bibendi John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 1901.

 

“What is the definition of a good wine? It should start and end with a smile.”
– Attributed to William Sokolin in many sources, including Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“Champagne, the great civilizer.”
– Attributed to Talleyrand in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“The wine of Love is music, and the feast of Love is song: And when Love sits down to the banquet, Love sits long.”
– James Thomson, The Vine, Stanza 1. Bartlett’s Quotations, Centennial Edition, 1955.

 

“You Americans have the loveliest wines in the world, you know, but you don’t realize it. You call them domestic and that’s enough to start trouble anywhere.”
– H. G. Wells, quoted in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“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, I look at you, and sigh.”
– William Butler Yeats, Green Helmet and Other Poems.

 

“In victory, you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.”
– Many sources, including Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997.

 

Entertainers & Professionals

“The soft extractive note of an aged cork being withdrawn has the true sound of a man opening his heart.”
– William Samuel Benwell, Journey to Wine in Victoria, Melbourne.

 

“Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures.”
– Michael Broadbent.

 

“If there are wines you have never tried before, please consult your waiter and let us encourage you to be adventurous. You’ll find it rewarding–and we will never make you pay for a wine you do not like.”
– From the menu of Campanile, Los Angeles.

 

“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.”
– Attributed to Julia Child.

 

“Wine is music from the vineyard.”
– Marilyn Clark, Sarah’s Vineyard.

 

“A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.”
– Clifton Fadiman, NY Times, March 8, 1987.

 

“I had to cook a dinner glorious enough to complement the Lafite. It took four days.”
– Attributed to Gael Greene.

 

“Wine is an appropriate article for mankind, both for the healthy body and for the ailing man.”
– Attributed to Hippocrates.

 

“It is my wish that an unforgettable wine should live on after me.”
– Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.

 

“Let’s have some wine, go upstairs, and look at my money.”
– David Letterman.

 

“Wine glasses, like fine wines, have always been a symbol of civilized living.”
– Alexis Lichine, Guide to the Wines and Vineyards of France. Third Edition, 1986.

 

“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

 

“Wine was born, not invented … like an old friend, it continues to surprise us in new and unexpected ways.”
– Dr. Salvatore P. Lucia, quoted in Bottled Wisdom, compiled and edited by Mark Pollman, 1998.

 

“If Claret is the king of natural wines, Burgundy is the queen.”
– Attributed to Moliere.

 

“I like to drink wine more than I used to.”
– Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

 

“Is not wine the very essence of laughter?”
– Maurice des Ombiaux, Le Gotha des vins de France, 1925 in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“Fermentation is correlative with life. Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages.”
– Attributed to Louis Pasteur.

 

“A man will be eloquent if you give him good wine.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Man, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“Come quickly! I am tasting stars! [at his first sip of champagne].”
– Dom Perignon, Dictionary of Quotations, Bergen Evans, 1968.

 

“Then wine bottles were brought up, carefully sealed and labeled. ‘FALERNIAN, CONSUL OPIMIUS, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.’ While we were examining the labels, Trimalchio clapped his hands. ‘Wine has a longer life than us poor mortals,’ he sighed, ‘so let us refresh our palates. Wine is life. I am giving you real Opimian.”
– Petronius, The Satyricon, quoted in The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“Drink to me with your eyes alone… And if you will, take the cup to your lips and fill it with kisses, and give it so to me.”
– Philostratus: Letter, Bartlett’s Quotations 1901 edition.

 

“The miracle of wine lies in the fact that makes a man what he should always be, friend of other men.”
– E. Engel

 

“At a recent tasting of the wines of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Eric de Rothschild was asked about his favorite vintage: ‘The ’59, he answered, if you like young wine.'”
– The Official Guide to Wine Snobbery, Leonard S. Bernstein, 1982.

 

“Excellent wine generates enthusiasm. And whatever you do with enthusiasm is generally successful. Baron Philippe de Rothschild, quoted in All American wine tastes the same … like Coca Cola.”
– Baron Philippe de Rothschild, The Essential Wine Buff, edited by Jennifer Taylor, 1996.

 

“Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The mottoes of Mouton before and after being raised to a First Cru; the story is told in many sources; these quotes are taken from Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997. What a man calls his ‘conscience’ is merely the mental action that follows a sentimental reaction after too much wine or love.”
– Helen Rowland, A Guide to Men, “Cymbals and Kettledrums”, 1922.

 

“Stories about [the German composer Johannes] Brahms’s rudeness and wit: A great wine connoisseur invited the composer to dinner. This is the Brahms of my cellar, he said to his guests, producing a dust-covered bottle and pouring some into the master s glass. Brahms looked first at the color of the wine, then sniffed its bouquet, finally took a sip, and put the glass down without saying a word. Don t you like it? asked the host. Hmm, Brahms muttered. Better bring your Beethoven!”
– Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years.

 

“Anyone who knows his history … must surely know his wines.”
– Attributed to Arnold Toynbee.

 

“At the Royall Oake Taverne, I drank a sort of French wine called Ho Bryan, that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with. [This was the first named Bordeaux chateau wine; now Haut-Brion.]”

– Samuel Pepys, Diary, 1663.

 

“Now this is an amusing little Chardonnay… with a surprisingly perky personality, until it is consumed in large quantities, at which point it seems to display some alarming emotional problems. Cartoon: A wine critic.”
– Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997.

 

“A winemaker’s task is to bring to perfection the natural potential that is in the fruit itself. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Napa Valley California.”
– Warren Winiarski, quoted in Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997.

 

“Overheard at The Diner in Yountville, California in the Napa Valley: How do you make a small fortune in the wine business? Start with a large fortune and buy a winery.”
– Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997.

 

“As one California winemaker said: We release no wine before the bank tells us that it’s ready.”
– Kevin Zraly, Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, 1997.

 

A Napa vineyard, one of my favorite places, in the whole world, to be; “Where the Vines Set the Tempo of Life…”
– Paul LaRussa, President, Premier Cru, Inc., A Fine Wine Ecosystem