Any advice is helpful

[Brom]

A few things:
Short winer,
"Do we see it as something everybody ought to have to enhance their lives and meals"

Certainly not. Everybody should like what I like? Piffle.

As a parenthetic you address the wine/food issue very well "(like herbs and spices, for instance)". (This also ties into the "everybody" idea)

Quite so. Certainly no one thinks of herbs and spices as "food" do you? These things do enhance a meal - well, some enhance for some, others enhance for others. Do you like every herb and spice combination? Very likely not. Just because 'somebody' enjoys something, does not mean that everybody will - nor should they be thought of as missing something if they don't. Wine is no more a food than allspice.

kcwhippet, you suggest that I am taking the statement out of context. Please explain how. I believe I have addressed the meaning intended within the context it was made.

Further you state: "Since very ancient times, wine has always been considered a food"

A very strong statement. You mean to say that no one has ever thought of wine as drink? Not even the Dionysian cults? Would you be able to support your statement? Please, when you do, specifically address those cults I mention.

Foodie

You say: "It is foolish to think you can live on any single food, save maybe the potato"

Why and how "foolish"? It can't be because it is untrue, since it is not untrue. Certainly we can live on single foods and not just the potato. We cannot however live on wine - nor does anyone take wine as food, but either on it's own as wine (a drink) or with food.

You again state "Wine is a food". What is the context in which I should interpret such a statement? Merely saying it again does not make it any more true, nor does it refute any of the statements I made.

Not a one of you ever just takes a drink of wine? Let me rephrase - not a one of you ever just has a glass of wine? What are you doing when you do?

Far from "demystifying" wine, pretending wine is something that it is not adds another shroud of mystery as people must wonder "Why isn't wine something to drink ?" It is a disservice, not only to those interested but yet only 'looking in' but to those of us who are indeed wine drinkers.

I would think it plain that pretending wine is food plays exactly to those who would "demonize" it. No, no, WE'RE not wine DRINKERS, it's not BAD like those other alcoholic beverages, it's food. That's blather and they (those who would demonize and people whose ears they might catch what they say) know it.

Speaking of the other drinks, is beer food? If not, why not? How about Bloody Mary's? You actually can live on them a while. My father happened to like Scotch whiskey with a steak. In that case did the whiskey transform into food because he drank it for the same purpose you assert is the reason wine is a food.

Glad to be here.