Wine Quotes

The complete collection of my "WineQuotes", selected at random for their entertainment or thought-provoking values, and by no means reflect the views of the author.

"More important than the food pairing is the person with whom you drink the wine." - Christian Moueix

“I am convinced that there is no better way of problem-solving than for the parties to meet over a well-chosen bottle.” – Tony Aspler

“Wine drinking goes back at least six thousand years. Wine writing probably began a year or two later.” – Frank J. Prial

“The art of tasting, in contrast to the act of drinking, is a question of measure: it teaches you to put quality before quantity. And because it stimulates all the senses – sound, sight, smell, taste and touch – it is an invitation to hedonism.” – Pierre Casamayor

“It is especially taboo for a wine writer to admit that he or she likes the buzz. But wine is a full sensory experience. It's not just tasting notes.” – Natalie MacLean

“Scores do not reveal the most important facts about a wine. The written commentary (tasting notes) that accompanies the ratings is a better source of information than any score regarding the wine’s style and personality, its quality level relative to its peers, and its relative value and aging potential.” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.

“Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy” – Novelty wine coaster

“...a man cannot make him laugh - but that's no marvel; he drinks no wine." – from Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

“My brother Julio and I worked to improve the quality of wines from California and to put fine wine on American dinner tables at a price people could afford” – Ernest Gallo

“Red, red wine
Stay close to me
Don`t let me be alone...” – from Red Red Wine, by UB40

"I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food." - W. C. Fields

“There are no great enologists. Only good grapes” – Michel Rolland

“For the price of a top-notch American Chardonnay, we could have a finer Burgundy -- or two.” – Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher (WSJ)

“We are not the best in the world, we are just trying to make good wine.” - Aubert de Villaine (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti)

“People who say you can’t drink good stuff all the time are fools. You must drink good stuff all the time. Every bottle of inferior wine you drink is like smashing a superior bottle against a wall; the pleasure is lost forever. You can’t get that bottle back.” – Leonard Paul Evans

“We’ve got to make it more American. It’s not going to blossom in American culture until we take the mystique out of it.” – Jess Jackson, on wine

“For every dish, there is probably one perfect wine – but for most of us, life is too short to figure out what it is.” - quote from What to Drink with What You Eat

"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

“Buying wine is a political act.” – Jonathan Nossiter

“If I can show them what quality wines we make here, perhaps they will drink our Barbaresco, too.” – Angelo Gaja, on why he introduced cabernet and chardonnay wines

“Global warming is more of a blessing than a curse." – Julian Barnes of Kent's Biddenden Vineyard (England)

“From a wine critic's perspective, there are far too many innocuous, over-oaked, over-acidified, or over-cropped wines emerging from California. While those sins would not be a problem if the wines sold for under $20, many are in fact $75-$150. That's appalling.” - Robert M. Parker, Jr.

"Wine prepares the heart for love, unless you take too much." - Ovid

“It takes a great deal of labor and love to make ice wine. When you have it with dessert, you miss the point of enjoying it on its own.” – Alpana Singh, MS

“Even where it prospers, it needs to be coaxed, wheedled, flattered, cajoled, cursed and (or) prayed over almost ounce by ounce through a series of crises that starts at the fermenters and lasts beyond bottling.” – Bob Thompson, on Pinot Noir

“I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.” – Frank Sinatra

“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 makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance." - Benjamin Franklin

“I like wines that you’re still smelling after the meal is over and the glass is empty." - Thomas Bachelder, winemaker

“A classification is only important if it means something to consumers.” – Count Stephan von Neipperg

"They're so good, I give them away to the gendarmes each time I get a speeding ticket." – Count Stephan von Neipperg of Canon-La Gaffelière

“I hate to see a beautiful woman drink bad wine” – actor Victor Lanoux as ‘The Thief’ in National Lampoon’s European Vacation

“The best advice I can give people when they buy Burgundy, which is a bit of a roulette game, is to look for producers who are tried and true… Look for the name of the producer, whether Michel Lafarge, Domaine Leflaivre, Dominique Lafont, or another. When they put their name on the bottle, they’re proud.” – Daniel Johnnes, beverage director of Daniel

“If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life.” – Sir Alexander Fleming

“Wine is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babes, tea the drink of women, and water the drink of beasts.” – John Stuart Blackie

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

“When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing.” – Ovid

“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

“An occasional enophile, after investing his psyche in cellar construction, goes on a buying rampage. He behaves as though he considers empty cellar space to be an abhorrent vacuum in desperate need of immediate obliteration. There will be great vintages in your future. Save cellar space for them.” – Richard M. Gold, Ph.D. “How and Why To Build a Wine Cellar”, 3rd Ed.

“What makes these special Beaujolais attractive is the same thing that has always made Beaujolais attractive: the price. Given the insane prices of so many wines right now, Beaujolais and the delicious wines pouring in from southern Italy and Sicily keep many wine drinkers from switching to iced tea.” – Frank J. Prial, on cru Beaujolais

“I only regret that I have but one liver to give to my blog” – Joe

“I love white Portugal wine better than claret, champagne, or burgundy. I have a sad vulgar appetite.” – Jonathan Swift

“If you’ve been drinking wines that are in the under-$15 category, it’s improved your life substantially” – Joel Peterson of Ravenswood, on the improved quality in low end wines.

"In over twenty years of winemaking this is by far the hardest wine I've had to make. It's like mixing 9 different colors of paint and trying to end up with a rainbow instead of a muddy brown." – Russ Rosner, winemaker at Sokol Blosser, on the Evolution White

"No viticultural region in America has demonstrated as much progress in quality and potential for greatness as... the Santa Barbara region, where the Burgundian varietals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are planted in its cooler climates." - Robert Parker Jr.

“The secret of the world's best wines is soul. That soul comes from the vineyard and the winemaker's hands." - Mike Drash, winemaker, Luna Vineyards

"When it comes to quality, California is greatly indebted to Mr. G. de Latour, of Rutherford, who for some years has imported hundreds of thousands of the choicest French grafted vines, which have been planted in all the important vineyards of the State." - St. Helena Star, May, 1911

"The wines are well-balanced and elegant. They may not be as powerful these days as some other Napa Valley Cabernets, but that is their stylistic choice." - David Ramey, on Dominus wines

“To err is human
but to Zin is d’vine
Here lies the last wimpy wine.
R.I.P.”
- Ravenswood slogan

“We honor the land by farming organically, creating rich soils providing healthy vines an opportunity to deliver wonderfully flavored fruit.” - David Koball, Bonterra

“There are hundreds of decisions that go into making a bottle of wine and it all begins in the vineyard, with the land. One of the most basic and essential ingredients in growing a great grape is starting with healthy soils.” – Chateau Montelena

“My mother served me wine and water from the time I was 3 years old.” – Robert Mondavi

“In volume terms, the Tasmanian wine industry is as tiny as its potential is large.” – James Halliday, in the Oxford Companion to Wine (3rd Ed.)

“In Châteauneuf you never find stones at two or three metres deep, as you do here. The terroir in Madiran is unique!” - Alain Brumont

“In Canada, it’s almost always a good idea to offer wine at a business meal.” - The Wydham Estate Executive Guide to Wine: Choosing Wines for Business Meals

“This valley is just flaming red hot at the moment” – John Simes, Mission Hill winemaker
“I think that to make good wines, the less you modify them during vinifications, the best it is. That means that I prefer a more sensitive wine-making than a work made according to analysis results.” – Nicolas Potel

"To make a great wine one needs a madman to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to make the wine, a lover to drink it!" – Dali

"Qui sait déguster ne boit plus jamais de vin, mais goûte des secrets" – Dali

“It is science that brings us an understanding of the true complexity of natural systems. The insights from the science of ecology are teaching us how to work with the checks and balances of nature, and encouraging a new, rational, limited-input, environmentally sound means of vineyard management that offers a third way between the ideologically driven approach of Biodynamics and conventional chemical-based agricultural systems.” – Jamie Goode in “The Science of Wine – From Wine to Glass”

"I learned how to make wine in hot weather. With global warming underway, that is an important lesson." - Pierre Seillan, Vigneron, on what he learned in California

"Oak in wine should be like a ghost. You sense its presence, but you don't actually perceive it." – Pierre Seillan, Vigneron

“May you never want for wine, nor a friend to help drink it." - French proverb

“One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints.” - Italian Proverb

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria." - Ben Franklin

“A man will be eloquent if you give him good wine.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men

“Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane.” - Honoré de Balzac

"He who does not love wine, wife, and song will be a fool his whole life long." – saying?

“When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognised. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Everything really desirable has come about because of, or in spite of, wine!” – Lawrence Durrell

“Smooth out with wine the worries of a wrinkled brow.” – Horace

"To my mind, Petite Sirah is Durif. There is no doubt about this. Some Petite Sirah vineyards, especially old ones, often contain a few vines of other varieties, but when we analyzed the DNA of vines that look like Petite Sirah, more than 90% of them are Durif. The few that are not turn out to be Peloursin, which is the mother of Durif and looks a lot like it." - Dr. Carole Meredith

“When a man drinks at dinner he begins to be better pleased with himself.” – Plato

"It is good to have good friends, and even better to have good friends who love wine, but it is absolutely spectacular when those good friends love the really, really good stuff and want to share." - Joe

“If you drink it, then you can’t smell it anymore.” – Kenn

“It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes, and wine and love have ever been allies.” - Ovid, The Art of Love

“The best wine comes from home, wherever it is.” - Kirk Douglas, in the film "Spartacus"

"God made only water, but man made wine." - Victor Hugo

"Where there's wine, there's civilization" - Hubert de Montille

"I don't know anything but I do know a good shiraz." - my good friend Eden

"It's not revolutionary viticulture, or even totally French, but seeing everything in one place, on one vineyard, concentrated on making one wine, is enough to make a crusty old wine writer weep." - Anthony Gismondi, on the Osoyoos Larose winery

"If I'm drinking a $75 bottle of wine, every glass is worth $15, every sip worth $3. That is a wine that demands, and deserves, my complete and undivided attention." - Joe

"…aging zin in French oak is like putting perfume on John Wayne” – from Red, White and Drunk All Over, Natalie MacLean

"I’d rather had a frontal lobotomy than a Laube in front of me” – Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm, in Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean

"Wine is dead." - Aimé Guibert

“Suffice it to say that no-one to my knowledge has ever contracted typhoid, yellow fever or cholera from drinking wine. The same cannot be said of water.” – Tony Aspler

“It scares the living crap out of me how good wine is at ten dollars.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

“In the New World, wine and food are in two simultaneous monologues - a dysfunctional pairing.” – Randall Grahm, Bonny Doon Vineyards

“I look for a distinctly sensuous character, in aroma and texture, combined with a firm but not rigid structure. Where there is power, it is usually discreet; where there is tannin, it does not obscure the fruit.” – Stephen Brook, on the wines of Pomerol

“I hope that some day (we are at a point where in California) we rate the great wines based on the terroir." – Jess Jackson

“French wines rock – they have soul” – Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm, in Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean

“Wine is art. It's culture. It's the essence of civilization and the art of living." – Robert Mondavi, 1913 – 2008

“Black wines have become the rage over the last 20 years. I prefer our wines to be red." – Christian Moueix

“Quand le moût de
la Nerthe
Vibre et rit dans
le verre..." - MISTRAL

I said “Close your eyes, I got a surprise," and I ran away with the bottle of wine - LL Cool J, Going Back to Cali

"Like a bottle of Chateau Neuf Du Pap
I'm fine like wine when I start to rap" - Beastie Boys, Body Movin'

"Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is "beware". This is not a wine for drinking; this is a wine for laying down and avoiding." - Eric Idle in Monty Python's "Australian Table Wines"

"Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever" – Aristophanes

"Wine is sunlight, held together by water." - Galileo

"It ends with a finish that's long overdue and I think this would go well with a gun."
- Brad Zimmerman, comedian

"That's a Dom Perignon '55 - it would be a pity to break it" - Dr. No
"I prefer the '53 myself" - James Bond
— from Dr. No

"But I don't believe in this whole modern versus traditional debate. Up until about twenty years ago ninety percent of the wines were defective, oxidized. So that's tradition?"
— Piemontese winemaker Bruno Rocca in Vino Italiano, The Regional Wines of Italy

"My definition of palatable might be slightly different from yours."
— Alan Rickman as Steven Spurrier in the movie Bottle Shock

"They drank up the wine
And they got to talking
They now had more important things to say"
— from "The Way" by Fastball 

"You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."
- Woody Allen

"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water."
— Mark Twain

"Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan after a hefty portion of asparagus."
— a fake Parker review read by Alec Baldwin as "Jack Donaghy" in 30 Rock