Wine, women & song

THE WINE CLUB

Time for a break from the "wine knowledge" stuff I've been penning to what makes wine drinkers tick "" time to delve into the psychology of the drinker.

While almost a cliche, the phrase "wine, women and song" captures a certain lifestyle "" aptly reflected in the lyrics of the song by the same name:

"You get what you can,
But, don't take too long.
You can tell me it's wrong,
But, I love wine, women
an' song."

For that's what wine is all about "" a stylish way to live, and love. Go to any party today and all the women are drinking wine. Knowing about your wine is a great icebreaker (ask any good operator), and one can get pretty far once that bridge has been crossed.

Metrosexuality is all the rage now, and for most women the Samurai warrior-poet is infinitely preferable to Conan the Barbarian. Forsooth, ladies, would ye not dump a whisky-swilling savage for the suave and sophisticated wine aficionado?

More seriously, while one may not subscribe to the adage that "wine drinkers make better lovers", it is a proven fact that people who drink wine are healthier, better educated, and have a higher socio-economic status, and are better-adjusted than their counterparts who prefer distilled spirits or beer.

Of course, most wine drinkers were probably all of that to begin with "" it's unlikely that merely drinking wine will magically change the individual.

However, drinking (and appreciating) wine indicates a certain type of thought and behaviour that seems synonymous with the healthy lifestyle and liberal outlook that marks many successful people.

There's been scads of research done on wine and health "" the French Paradox is too well known to bear repetition.

However, here's an interesting (and tongue strictly in cheek) piece on who drinks what type of wine by a Dr Wolkoff from Canada:

"The people who are interested in Chardonnay want easy pleasure, they want oodles of pleasure and they don't want to think about it. This is the wine for somebody who's a bit of a thinker.

Not the ultimate wine nerd, but someone who's out to prove that they're past wine as a pillow for the mouth.

"Riesling would be the ultimate thinker's white wine ... it's definitely a wine for the precise or the thoughtful.

"Shiraz is the perfect grape for the archetypal Australian guy. It's a macho brawlers' grape with tons of oak. With some of the Australian ones you pluck splinters of American oak out of your tongue after you drink a glass.

"Merlot is for the undiscriminating pleasure seeker. They don't want it to require any thinking and it's a little like Chardonnay in that it's very flattering and very seductive.

"(Inexpensive) Cabernet Sauvignon drinkers tend to be energetic types, the kind of folks who are on baseball and football teams. They're not as laidback as the Merlot drinker. Expensive Cabernet Sauvignon is for people whose clothes cost more than $5,000, not including jewellery.

"Red Burgundy is the goddess of wine. It's really a lot like the Judeo-Christian god. One does not question the will of pinot noir. It rewards, it punishes and it is ours to follow without ever losing faith. The vast bulk of pinot worshippers are helpless, hopeless (wine) nerds."

So perhaps when you are at your next party and eyeing that languorous lass while the music plays a scintillating beat, have a care to the wine you drink!

Cheers, kampai, salud, prost and balle balle!

(al_chandra@vsnl.net)