From ancient Greek philosophers to modern comedians, explore a curated collection of memorable wine quotes and the stories behind them.
Wine has been important since it was first fermented in the Caucasus nearly eight thousand years ago. It was vital for religious rituals since before Christianity turned it into divine blood. It’s no wonder that wine has been so often portrayed in art. Pre-Christian civilizations featured wine in paintings on the walls of homes and tombs. Later, Christian art showcased wine through the life of Jesus and biblical stories. Eventually, artists moved away from religious themes and landed on depicting wine in everyday scenes.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that a lot has been said about wine through the ages; and lucky for us, a lot of it has been written down and is available to us. Today I want to write about some of my favorite wine quotes.
Wine Quotes by the Classics
By “classics” I mean ancient Greek and Roman personalities, whose opinions mattered enough to write down what they said or preserve what they’ve written. And since modern Western thinking is usually understood to have begun with Plato, he’s also perfect to kickstart this list of my favorite wine quotes.
Drunkenness is always improper, except at the festivals.
Plato
I love this wine quote. I feel Plato’s giving me permission to drink as much as I want as long as it’s the festivals. And since I don’t know what that is, I choose to believe he’s talking about the weekends. I have a second wine quote by Plato, which I also like a lot:
Wine makes most drinkers think.
Plato
Plato is cool… but what about Socrates? Well, we don’t have any surviving texts written by him, only the dialogues that his contemporaries wrote later. This quote comes from Xenophon’s Symposium:
Wine does of a truth ‘moisten the soul’ and lull our griefs to sleep.
Socrates
[I]t is the wine that leads me on, the wild wine that sets the wisest man to sing at the top of his lungs, laugh like a fool – it drives the man to dancing… it even tempts him to blurt out stories better never told.
Homer – The Odyssey
The Odyssey is kinda hot right now, so it just makes sense that I would do my best to include a wine quote from that book here, right? Gotta ride the wave! Also, I can totally relate.
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
Aristophanes
Speaking of relatable, this is exactly how I feel every time I sit in front of my computer to write for this blog.
The best kind of wine is that which is more pleasant to him that drinks it.
Pliny the Elder
I mean, doesn’t it feel like a lot of what I write gravitates around that idea—and here’s ol’ Pliny just casually dropping facts in less than twenty words. But yeah… I couldn’t agree more.
I feel this is the perfect spot to switch from classic wine quotes to what the clergy said about wine.
Wine Quotes by Religious Authorities
Wine has been important in religion, so it’s unsurprising that we have wine quotes said by notable people in that sphere. Let’s talk about a few of them:
Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
Pope John XXIII
Of course, this says more about people than wine, but if someone knows about wine, that’s the church. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was pope for just shy of five years, but he left us with that great wine quote.
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
Thomas Aquinas
That’s Saint Thomas of Aquino to you, friend. His name comes often in the conversation of the greatest Western scholars, though his philosophy comes sprinkled with religion. As one of the most influential thinkers of the medieval period, I’m sure his advice is solid!
If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?
Cardinal Richelieu
Can’t say he’s wrong, to be honest. One of the most important figures of 17th century France, Richelieu orchestrated the consolidation of royal power under King Louis XIII by centralizing the monarchy and reducing the influence of the aristocracy. He, obviously, also enjoyed a good drink.
Come quickly, I am tasting the stars.
Dom Pérignon
This wine quote is commonly attributed to Dom Pérignon to describe the bubbles he was tasting in the wine. However, like with many of the stories about him, this is likely untrue. He probably never said it, just as he didn’t invent sparkling wine.
Either give me more wine or leave me alone.
Rumi
I might be cheating a little with this one, because Rumi, though a spiritual figure during the 13th century, was more a philosopher and scholar than what we would today recognize as a religious figure. Also, this wine quote uses it as a symbol for God.
Wine Quotes by Writers
I could’ve included Rumi, as a poet, here, but it would be unfair to many of the personalities above, as many of them published books.
Wine… the intellectual part of the meal.
Alexandre Dumas
The author of The Three Musketeers, which made Cardinal Richelieu the villain, gifted us with this great wine quote which I love, even though I often think that wine language—that intellectuality—is a problem in making it more available for newbies.
We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.
Eduardo Galeano
Galeano was an important author in his native Uruguay and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. He also, in a few words, explained love and wine perfectly. This wine quote is definitely a keeper.
My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.
Jonathan Swift
Swift, the Irish writer of Gulliver fame, plays on an old superstition claiming that an itchy nose meant that you would meet a fool, get in a fight, or kiss someone foolish. Why fight when you can drink wine?
Always carry a corkscrew and the wine shall provide itself.
Basil Bunting
Thanks to this wine quote by poet Basil Bunting, I normally take a corkscrew with me whenever I’m invited to friends’ homes. I already often bring the wine, so why not?
Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.
Judith Viorst
I couldn’t agree more with this American children’s literature author. It’s what I’ve been saying in this very blog for close to two years: with wine, food is a less important pairing than company. Wine really pairs better with mood, with friends.
Wine is bottled poetry.
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Silverado Squatters
I’ve struggled in the past to succinctly express how I feel about wine. And then here’s this wine quote, casually doing so in a handful of words. So jealous.
Wine Quotes by Entertainers
I really didn’t know how to categorize these wine quotes, but they were all made by actors, musicians, comedians—in short, entertainers. So, here we are.
What wine goes with Cap’n Crunch?
George Carlin
Food pairing rules? Yeah, forget all that snobbery. It’s funnier because I’ve eaten that cereal dry, as a snack. You can totally pair snacks with wine… I just don’t know about Cap’n Crunch.
A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly lover of wine.
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Fadiman is an author, but I decided to label him as an entertainer because he was first a radio and later a TV personality.
A glass of wine at the right time is worth more than all the riches of the earth.
Gustav Mahler
Wine pairs great with mood, and oftentimes that mood calls for a glass. Yes, I agree with this turn-of-the-20th-century composer. I know I’ve often felt like that when meeting a special friend or after a hard day at work.
I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W.C. Fields
I close these wine quotes with a favorite, which might not have been said by the comedian. Still, it’s a fun one!
The Last Drop
There are a lot of issues with these wine quotes. For one, several of them are translations, and therefore they might be wrong. Additionally, some of them are attributed to the author, but maybe they never said the wine quote. Lastly, I didn’t include a lot of wine quotes that I like, because they were hard to fact-check, so in a couple of them I didn’t even bother.
Did I miss a quote you would’ve liked to see here? When I began this blog, I wanted to include a wine quote in every one of my articles, so I actually looked for several and kept and wrote them down somewhere. However, I quickly realized that I didn’t have enough, and I was setting myself up for future stress trying to find a quick quote every week after I finished writing my article.
Cover image, photo by Nellen Navarro.
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