ON DRINKING WINE
This five page
article is all about wine. Johns is a
keen wine drinker. “In a world fairly
saturated with snobbery and hypocrisy, nothing has received worse treatment in
this country than wine, the reason being that less is known of it here than in
any other country in Europe. For the
same reason, the worst wine in the world is to be found here, wine – so called –
that no one in a wine country would touch with a barge-pole. Furthermore, its price has been so distorted
that it has come to be regarded as a luxury, available only for the wealthy, or
something to be reserved for great occasions.
Which is all very silly”. “The rule in drinking wine is to drink the
wine you like best”. Johns tells a story
of when he was in France drinking a five franc bottle of wine with a plain
label. Four Englishmen arrived and were
given the same wine but they turned their noses up at it. They wanted a better label. The then paid twenty francs a bottle for a
wine with a fancy label but Johns knew it was in fact the same wine. Johns says this about wine. “Don’t, for heaven’s sake, throw it into your
mouth as though you have just done a route march across the Sahara. Three senses are called into play when drinking
wine: sight, smell, and taste”. “In
closing, let me say that I have nothing against beer. I can drink beer with anybody, and beer is
one of the few things that are getting better and better; but for dinner, wine
is the king of the table, and always will be”.