Sat Aug 02, 2008
An Excessive Love of Wine
There can be a fine line between enjoying wine and enjoying it too much.
Writing about wine (like making wine, sales-repping wine, or buying wine for a retailer or restaurant) raises a serious occupational hazard: drinking too much, or, at the extreme, alcoholism. I was reading the Wine Spectator blogs yesterday, and I came across the latest post by James Molesworth, about a dinner with a buddy.
It’s subscription-only, so the upshot is that Molesworth’s wife was out of town, leaving him with the kids, and a buddy was in the same boat. So they dropped off the kids with their nannies and went out to dinner. It sounds like a great night, and I wish I’d been there, and I also couldn’t help noticing something that another poster on the blog noticed: Molesworth describes drinking three bottles of wine between two guys. I also noticed that he mentions drinking in different venues in different parts of town with no word of a taxi or a limo. Now, it’s perfectly possible that he only sampled each bottle, corking them to savor later as well. I’ve certainly done that myself. And it may well have seemed boorish to mention all this in the post; after all, the guy doesn’t need to defend himself. He’s good at his job; he’s a good writer. Also, please understand that I make no judgment of Molesworth. He wrote a nice post, and I’ve been a heavy drinker myself. I love drinking wine, and I love drinking lots and lots and lots of wine. In fact, I would drink a bottle a night if the consequences weren’t so great: in terms of hangover, yes, but also weight gain, irritability, difficulty in relating to my toddlers, loss of sleep, loss of energy, etc. So I’m struggling with it, trying to dial it back. ... (more)