In my business, inspiration is never far away. As Aristophanes said,
" Quickly bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may whet my mind and say something clever."

Oh, it greases the skids. But an evening’s brilliance is often the next morning’s incomprehensible drivel.

" This is one of the disadvantages of wine; it makes a man mistake words for thoughts"
– Samuel Johnson, 1778

Let the muse desert me! As I learned in college: steal from one writer, it’s plaguearism, steal from many, it’s research. Plenty of words are available on wine.

Its joys:
" The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars"
- Benjamin Franklin

" What is better than to sit at the end of the day and drink wine with friends, or substitutes for friends?"
- James Joyce

" Wine was created from the beginning to make men joyful, and not to make them drunk."
– Apocrypha, Ecclesiastes 31

Its benefits:
" Drink a glass of wine after your soup and you steal a ruble from your doctor."
– Russian proverb

" If you wish to grow thinner, diminish your dinner,
And take to light claret instead of pale ale."
– Henry Leigh, "On Corpulence"

" I have enjoyed great health at a great age because every day since I can remember I have consumed a bottle of wine except when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles"
– Bishop of Seville

" Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy"
– Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin

Its dangers:
" It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance."
– Shakespeare, in Macbeth
.
" Tis pity wine should be so deleterious,
For tea and coffee leave us much more serious."
– Lord Byron

" Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it’s compounding a felony"
– Robert Benchley

Its company:
" A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover."
– Clifton Fadiman

" Champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends!"
– traditional toast.

Good Wine, Bad Wine:
" The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations."
– French proverb

" Good wine ruins the purse; bad wine ruins the stomach."
– Spanish saying

Old wine:
" Appreciating old wine is like making love to a very old lady. It is possible. It can even be enjoyable. But it requires a bit of imagination.
– Andre Tchelistcheff, winemaker

" Today’s wines are better. Period. I’ve had plenty of old stuff and I’m here to testify that once you strip away the history and the rarity, the privilege and awe, the past has nothing on the present"
–Matt Kramer, wine columnist

Its lessons:
" Never guess at a vintage. Acknowledge you do not know, which is more often than not correct"
– Charles Walter Berry, 1932

" Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut"
– Ernest Hemingway

" Wine is like sex in that few men will admit not knowing all about it"
– Hugh Johnson

And when all else fails:
" When it came to writing about wine, I did what almost everybody does – faked it!"
– Art Buchwald

By Jennifer Rosen: http://www.vinchotzi.com