Life is a chaplet of little miseries, which the philosopher unstrings with a smile. Be philosophers as I am, gentlemen; sit down to the table and let us drink; nothing makes the future look so bright as surveying it through a glass of chambertin. – Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (1844), “Chapter XLVII: A Family Affair,”

A vine bears three bunches of grapes. The first, the bunch of pleasure; the second, that of drunkenness; the third, that of disgust. – Anacharsis (early 6th century BCE), paraphrase by Diogenes Laërtius (3rd C. CE)

Wine speaks to all the senses: the eyes behold the color, tone and shade; the nose, the bouquet; the fingers and lips caress the cool crystal; the ears delight in the subtle swishing of the liquid; the tongue rejoices in the reward of a rich harvest. – Mary Lou Collins Posch