If only I had a rupee for every time I have seen a t-shirt proclaiming the virtues of chocolate and beer over women?but the fact is that I don?t. So here?s a little scribble on wine and how it stands on a bar shelf stocked with everything else?not to compare, but to merely highlight.
Alcohol is the accepted universal language, but I am in no way encouraging teeming thousands to go grab a bottle. My effort is to help those who want to know more about wines, but don?t get around to it for one reason or another.
Potency, lets start there. Each molecule of alcohol is less than a billionth of a metre long and consists of a few atoms of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. Deceptive size for the serious damage it can cause. No, I don?t mean the medical-type damage, but the more social version involving Dutch courage, which most of us display under its influence. Shots bring out the ?best? in most?that, and the entire day?s food intake! ?Oh I can drink gallons of whiskey but a glass of wine/champagne hits me hard and fast!? something I hear often. Frequency has a lot to do with it. (Just like the man who exclaimed, ?Why I have been drinking whiskey everyday of my life and I have never been addicted!?) But alcohol content is not the culprit in wines. Grabbing a calculator I punch in some figures and this is what I have to share. Generally, and I mean really broad-based generally here, a glass of wine (125 ml) has 13 ml of alcohol in it. One will normally linger with a glass of wine for a good 20 minutes, unless one is the first to arrive at a fashionably late party. So, over an hour, a person would accumulate just about 40 ml of alcohol in his system. Compared with whiskey, vodka, et al (hard spirits), one ?large? contains 24 ml of alcohol, which, for the sake of party etiquettes, let?s assume a person drinks like a glass of wine ie three over an hour. Alcohol consumed: 72 ml! Ah! And you were wondering why the freckled person in parrot green sitting next to you was ?gradually beginning to look? so pretty?
Beer seems a safe option, but every pint we pull doses us with 16.5 ml of alcohol. At a pub, if Schumacher is well in the lead, an average bloke works his way through an easy five pints. Alcohol consumed: Enough to fire a fist fight. Beyond that, gulping any drink, wine included, will make troubles appear smaller than they are!
En suite, the range or choice factor. Vodkas are as imaginative as bathroom slippers or the mix one has them with. Tequila is the only thing that goes down faster than a government, so forget about taste. Whiskey is as easy to tell as Gaelic accents (hint: sarcasm) and Cognac, too, is an example of a drink enjoyed by many but discussed by few. As for beer, the lesser discussed the better; (if you talkin? you ain?t guzzlin?!) But wine, oh wine?from white to red to ros?, from bone-dry to syrupy sweet, from light to heavy?one needn?t do a thesis to tell them apart, or enjoy them! A lifetime is not enough to enjoy the variety available. Yeah, I know it?s tough getting started, but remember your first beer, well, we have all come a long way since then; so is it with wines, one has to start somewhere and then the journey itself takes us places.
I could press on the current IN topic? wine improves longevity. But research shows that it is alcohol in any form that when taken in moderation is beneficial and not particularly wine. Where wine does score is in having anti-oxidant properties, which somewhat slow down the ageing process (wrinkles and the likes). It also has (partially unexplained) anti-carcinogenic (cancer-fighting) properties. Tannins in red wines have lot of benefits for our body. A lesser-known fact and not exactly the high selling point, but wine is one rich source of Vitamin C.
To conclude, I must take the impartial albeit safe stand and state that no two beverages ever need to compete for my palate. Each has its own time and place. The whiskey population need not take a defensive stance; I intend to convert none. A beer enjoyed in a pub or an after-dinner cognac is not revenue snatched away from rum and coke in a club or champagne at a celebration. But having said that, I must also add that wine will always occupy a special place, not because I will compare it to the other options, but because, given its level of refinement and civility, I will choose not to!
?The writer is a sommelier