Scene: A Wine Shop, in the Archdiocese of Bordeaux
Enter a Customer
Wine Merchant: Good morning Monsieur. How may I help you?
Customer: I’d like a bottle of wine, please.
WM: (sighs) Aaah. A Bottliste. How quaint. (sighs, rolls eyes) Tell me Monsieur: do bottles exist for their own sake or for the sake of the wine inside?
C: Well, for the sake of the wine, obviously…
WM: So why not simply ask me for wine, if it’s wine you’re after? What's all this about "bottles"? Why this obsession with confining the wine, with locking it up, sealing it in? It’s a glorious gift from God – the stuff of love and life – it ought to run free…
C: Very generous sentiments, I’m sure. It’s rather difficult to take home though, without a bottle.
WM: (rolls eyes) Look, this is the twenty-first century. “Bottles” are ridiculous in this day and age. Today, we use these!
C: That’s a paper bag.
WM: You know very well it’s not a “paper bag”. It's the most attractive, modern, practical and adaptable means of transporting wine. Do you suppose the first wine-makers used glass bottles? Of course they didn’t – they used wineskins – and as a matter of fact these bags are much closer to the idea of a wineskin than a glass bottle. You can get them in all sorts of colours and patterns – they’re fantastic! Look - we even do kitschy bottle-shaped ones for nostalgia addicts like Monsieur.
C: They leak. And they make the wine taste funny.
WM: Rubbish! They were designed by experts – they don’t leak. You’re simply not using them correctly. You should read the instructions. The “taste” thing is entirely in your imagination. Get over it.
C: Hmmm. I never needed to “read the instructions” to take wine home in a bottle. “Experts” or not, these things are always half-empty by the time you get them home, and what remains is indistinguishable from vinegar after two days. My wife started picking them up a while ago, till we lost patience with the leaks and the peculiar flavour. The kids thought they looked cool for about ten minutes, but they’ve never developed an interest in wine (I blame the peculiar, synthetic after-taste). They're into supermarket vodka, I fear…
WM: Oh, here we go…elitist snobbery about “vodka”. What’s wrong with vodka? Who are you to turn your nose up at vodka? Actually, we’re thinking about doing a line in vodka ourselves. You should listen to your kids, instead of sneering at them. How typically judgmental!
C: Look, I only came in here for a bottle of wine…
WM: No you didn’t. You don’t care about wine. You don’t understand the first thing about wine. You came in here to waste my time with your dead, sterile arguments about bottles.
C: Okay, can I have a bottle of wine please?
WM: NO!
C: All right - I get the message. By the way, I understand very few people come in here any more. Any idea why that might be?
WM: YES!! IT’S BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
6 comments:
Well Moretben, I regularly buy my wine in a cardboard box. There are various sizes available and I usually buy the 4 litre size.
Chateau Cardboard fits quite conveniently in my fridge and I don't even have to take it out of the fridge to pour myself a glass of its contents. I just squeeze the tap at the bottom and voila!
Of course when I purchase a similar size of Port I don't put it in the fridge and it lasts me much longer than a De Bortoli Columbard/Chardonnay.
I'm inclined to do the same with my Cabernet/Merlot.
JARay
LOL
Are you trying to subvert my nice analogy, John?
Well, actually, no, Ben.
Sometimes one can be more subtle than the ordinary vinolentus like me.
Anyway, I see that the latest news puts the whole affair back on the long finger!
Sad!
JARay
What a lovely spiritual bouquet this entry has. Excellent!
You're getting good at analogies! I think Jaray's wine boxes are the NO celbrated seriously and properly. They are sufficient, they deliver what is required, but the average oenologist needs a bit more than just a glass of the stuff. Buying the wine; storing it; decanting it; getting it to the right temperature: are essential parts of the process which lead up to tasting, savouring, enjoying and profting from it.
Well, *I* think the analogy is perfect! Thank you for a wry laugh and a little tear. I'm sending this link to the kids.
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