In Vino Veritas

Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost. - Samuel Johnson

For most of my life, I would not go near wine. This behavior was based on an encounter I had with MD2020 in my youth that left me with, literally, a foul taste in my mouth. MD2020, also known as Mad Dog 2020, is a cheap wine and typically associated with the homeless and indigents. (I am not homeless but some might say I'm an indigent, however, that's a topic for a future blog.)

Fast Forward 20 years. One of my workmates is a wine connoisseur and hosts a couple of wine parties every year. He invited me and I declined telling him that I didn't like wine. At that time, I was a long term Mountain Dew-aholic, a very sweet highly caffeinated beverage. He knew this and told me that he could find me a wine that would appeal to my sweet tooth. This is how I met Riesling, a sweet white wine in a blue bottle served cold. Riesling and I became friends at first taste. The first bottle of wine I ever purchased for myself was a Riesling.

The same workmate and I went on a business trip to Germany and Italy a year or so later. While in Italy, he set the hook he had baited with the Riesling and started feeding me Italian wines, good Italian wines. Every restaurant we visited, he chose another type of red wine and I found myself enjoying them immensely.

After the Italian leg, the second leg, of the trip, I took a third leg while he went home to the US. This part of the trip found me in India. I stayed in a classy hotel that featured many wine varietals. I had no one to choose wine for me, so I had to decide of my own accord which wine I would drink. Not knowing anything about wine selection, I decided to try all 8 of the wine by the glass items on the dinner menu one glass at a time. To my dismay, I found out that some wines are not very tasty. I called him and cursed him. I used to think that all wine was bad and now I knew that some wine was bad and some good and some really good. This set me upon a multi-year quest to find wines that both taste good and are not too expensive....it's a losing battle for my wallet.

I don't know about the nuances of wine and have no ideas what wine compliments what dish. To me color is red or not red. Legs are what you walk on to pick up the bottle in the store. All wine smells like wine. A bouquet is something you buy the hot girl you want to get to know better (or intimately). And during the tasting, I can't tell the attack from the evolution from the finish. When I drink wine, all I know is that it either tastes good or it doesn't.


Wine is a socially acceptable social lubricant. It has an alcohol content much lower than whiskey (my previous drink of choice) so more can imbibed before one gets tipsy.  I find the lower intoxication encountered under wine helps a conversation flow with more eloquence than the babble encountered when drinking the same volume of whiskey which would make one stupid drunk.

So how does wine equate with truth?

Too much lubricant and one will have the same ill effects as drinking lots of any alcohol. The trick is to lubricate at an appropriate level where in inhibitions slowly melt away, almost imperceptible to the person drinking wine. With inhibitions being eroded, a person is more likely to let down their guard, stop hiding behind the mask they wear when trying to manage their image to the outside world. With our defenses down, we show more of who we really are. give others a rare peak into our inner thoughts and ideas. During that time we show our true selves. So, "wine brings out truth" which is another translation of In Vino Veritas.