Happy people drink socially. Unhappy people drink habitually. Wine drinkers drink wine as part of a well-lubricated “lifestyle”. This is why there is such a wide availability of literally thousands of wines. This is why there are hundreds of wine blogs out there in etherspace. Why there are scores of wine bars primarily dedicated to serving the needs of the wine drinking public. Why there are so many magazines focused on wine. Wine Spectator, Decanter, Wines & Vines, Wine Enthusiast, Food & Wine, Wine Albino (ha! made that one up) are all published to serve the literate (and semi-literate) wine drinking public. There are MANY more online. The amenable pairing of wine and food has for millennia served as a pleasurable challenge for masters of cuisine both professionally and in the home. It’s all due to the celebration of the “wine lifestyle”. Witness how few magazines/bars/blogs focus on vodka or whiskey. The “wine lifestyle” is truly a celebration of life, of living the good life. Wine is a living, breathing thing. No two wines are exactly alike, just like no two wine drinkers’ palates are identical. The consumption of wine has a myriad of contexts, none of which is exactly the same as another. All of these verities contribute to the reality that the “wine lifestyle” is exciting and dynamic. The possibility of encountering the unknown, be it in a wine, wine bar, or fellow wine drinker, makes the “wine lifestyle” equally exciting and dynamic. Get it? Got it? Drink more wine!
Cheers, Buckley Wineholt