Wine

"If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons we should drink: Good wine, a friend, or being dry, Or lest we should be by and by, Or any other reason why."

"A vine bears three grapes, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance."

"When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever."

"Jeremiah was a bull frog Was a good friend of mine I never understood a single word he said But I helped him a-drink his wine And he always had some mighty fine wine."

"For when the wine is in, the wit is out."

"WINE, n. Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Union as liquor, sometimes as rum."

"A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine."

"Tell me what you drink, and I will tell you what you are"

"Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk of them and Champagne makes you do them."

"A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. 'Much obliged,' said he, pushing the dish away from him, 'but I am not in the habit of taking my wine in pills.'"

"Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after."

"To me wine is just so much spoiled fruit juice."

"Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; 'tis your country bids!"

"Wine in, truth out."

"A large cask of wine had been dropped and broken, in the street. The accident had happened in getting it out of a cart; the cask had tumbled out with a run, the hoops had burst, and it lay on the stones just outside the door of the wine-shop, shattered like a walnut-shell."

"I rather like bad wine … one gets so bored with good wine."

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favours what you do."

"Once... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days."

"I was in love with a beautiful blonde once. She drove me to drink; that's the one thing I'm indebted to her for."

"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?"

"We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!"

"Before man drinks of it, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion; if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles the pig; and if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey, he dances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing."

"And Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard."

"Youth is intoxication without wine. ("Jugend ist Trunkenheit ohne Wein.")."

"My dear girl, there are some things that just aren't done, such as drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That's just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!"

"So, I called up the Captain: "Please bring me my wine." He said: "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.""

"At the third cup, wine drinks the man."

"And now, my children, I pray you, do not intoxicate yourselves with wine, for wine twists the understanding away from the truth, and confuses the sight of the eyes. Wine led me astray, so that I felt no shame before the throngs of people in the city, and I turned aside and went in to Tamar in the presence of them, and committed a great sin. And though a man be a king, if he leads an unchaste life, he loses his kingship. I gave Tamar my staff, which is the stay of my tribe, and my girdle-cord, which is power, and my signet-diadem, which is the glory of my kingdom. I did penance for all this, and unto old age I drank no wine, and ate no flesh, and knew no sort of pleasure. Wine causes the secret things of God and man to be revealed unto the stranger. Thus did I disclose the commands of the Lord and the mysteries of my father Jacob to the Canaanite woman Bath-shua, though God had forbidden me to betray them. I also enjoin you not to love gold, and not to look upon the beauty of women, for through money and through beauty I was led astray to Bath-shua the Canaanite. I know that my stock will fall into misery through these two things, for even the wise men among my sons will be changed by them, and the consequence will be that the kingdom of Judah will be diminished, the domain that the Lord gave me as a reward for my obedient conduct toward my father, for never did I speak in contradiction of him, but I did all things according to his words."

"In nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in our relish of wines."

"And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles."

"And the vine said unto them, Shoult I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?"

"It is said that during the time of the Imams, certain close followers [had] secretly gathered for spiritual brotherhood rituals in which wine was consumed in a sacred context. These gatherings have been compared to the Last Supper of Jesus, involving a symbolic and spiritually charged drink. … If wine is a “Servant of Light,” then it reveals both the light and the darkness within us."

"What care I, love, for what the Sufis say? The Sufis are but drunk another way; So you be drunk, it matters not the means, So you be drunk—and glorify your clay. Drunken myself, and with a merry mind, An old man passed me, all in vine leaves twined; I said, “Old man, hast thou forgotten God?” “Go, drink yourself,” he said, “for God is kind.” “Did God set grapes a-growing, do you think, And at the same time make it sin to drink? Give thanks to HIM who foreordained it thus— Surely HE loves to hear the glasses clink!”"

"O for a Bowle of fatt Canary, Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry, Some Nectar else, from Juno’s Daiery, O these draughts would make us merry."

"Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape, Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine."

"Clare takes a mouthful, swallows it in a businesslike fashion, and says, “Well, that’s not so bad.” “That’s a twenty-something-dollar bottle of wine.” “Oh. Well, that was marvelous.”"

"Instead of Dresden, chance brought us to the Rhine, and we took advantage of the opportunity and travelled along the Rhine with steamer. Just think of the places we passed! Past Hochheim, where there's Hochheimer wine, past Rüdesheim, where there's Rüdesheimer wine, past Johannisberg, where there's Johannisberger wine, and then there's Markobrunn, where there's Markobrunner wine: how could we not have a drink? So we drank some Rhine wine and composed a song about it, which we'll send you soon."

"A singer in a smoky room; the smell of wine and cheap perfume."

"Vinum bonum laetificat cor hominis."

"In vino veritas."

"“They say wine will kill you slowly.” He nodded his head solemnly. “But that’s all right, we’re in no hurry.”"

"A cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in 't."

"Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me, nor a man cannot make him laugh. But that’s no marvel: he drinks no wine. There’s never none of these demure boys come to any proof, for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards, which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it: it ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish and dull and cruddy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood, which before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts’ extremes. It illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart; who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage. And this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it awork; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till sack commences it, and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant, for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land, manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack."

"... good company, good wine, good welcome, can make good people."

"Give me a bowl of wine; In this I bury all unkindness."

"O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!"

"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it."

"Give me a bowl of wine: I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have."

"Drink no longer water but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities."

"Men to whom wine had brought death long before lay by springs of wine and drank still, too stupefied to know their lives were past."

"Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest."

"Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things,—old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."

"No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better."

"Few things surpass old wine; and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain,— Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after."

"Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors to read!—Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appeared to be best in these four things."

"What find you better or more honourable than age? Take the preheminence of it in everything,—in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree."

"I love everything that 's old,—old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine."

"I hang no ivie out to sell my wine; The nectar of good wits will sell itself."

"Firm and erect the Caledonian stood; Sound was his mutton, and his claret good; "Let him drink port!" the English statesman cried: He drank the poison, and his spirit died."

"Old Simon the cellarer keeps a rare store Of Malmsey and Malvoisie."

"John Barleycorn was a hero bold, Of noble enterprise, For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise, 'Twill make a man forget his wo; 'Twill heighten all his joy."

"So Noah, when he anchor'd safe on The mountain's top, his lofty haven, And all the passengers he bore Were on the new world set ashore, He made it next his chief design To plant and propagate a vine, Which since has overwhelm'd and drown'd Far greater numbers, on dry ground, Of wretched mankind, one by one, Than all the flood before had done."

"Which cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires The young, makes Weariness forget his toil, And Fear her danger; opens a new world When this, the present, palls."

"Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels."

"Sing! Who sings To her who weareth a hundred rings? Ah, who is this lady fine? The Vine, boys, the Vine! The mother of the mighty Wine, A roamer is she O'er wall and tree And sometimes very good company."

"The conscious water saw its God and blushed."

"It wasn't the wine," murmured Mr. Snodgrass in a broken voice, "it was the salmon."

"When asked what wines he liked to drink he replied, "That which belongs to another.""

"Bring me wine, but wine which never grew In the belly of the grape, Or grew on vine whose tap-roots, reaching through Under the Andes to the Cape, Suffered no savor of the earth to escape."

"From wine what sudden friendship springs?"

"Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genius a better discerning."

"Call things by their right names * * * Glass of brandy and water! That is the current, but not the appropriate name; ask for a glass of liquid fire and distilled damnation."

"The wine in the bottle does not quench thirst."

"Wine makes all sorts of creatures at table."

"You cannot know wine by the barrel."

"Sparkling and bright, in liquid light, Does the wine our goblets gleam in; With hue as red as the rosy bed Which a bee would choose to dream in."

"And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile."

"Nunc vino pellite curas."

"Vino diffugiunt mordaces curæ."

"Quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat?"

"Spes donare novas largus, amaraque Curarum eluere efficax."

"Fœcundi calices quem non fecere disertum."

"As for the brandy, "nothing extenuate"; and the water, put nought in in malice."

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."

"But that which most doth take my muse and me, Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine, Which is the mermaid's now, but shall be mine."

"Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet's horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted."

"Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth! Oh for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene! With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth."

"There is a devil in every berry of the grape."

"Filled with the wine Of the vine Benign That flames so red in Sansavine."

"When flowing cups pass swiftly round With no allaying Thames."

"Things of greatest profit are set forth with least price. Where the wine is neat there needeth no ivie bush."

"The produce of the vineyards has not failed everywhere, Ovidius. The heavy rains have been productive. Coranus made up a hundred jars by means of the water."

"If with water you fill up your glasses, You'll never write anything wise; For wine is the horse of Parnassus, Which hurries a bard to the skies."

"O Roman punch! O potent Curaçoa! O Maraschino! Maraschino O! Delicious drams! Why have you not the art To kill this gnawing Book-worm in my heart?"

"Better be jocund with the fruitful Grape Than sadden after none, or bitter fruit."

"The Grape that can with Logic absolute The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute: The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute."

"Vina paract animos, faciuntque coloribus aptos: Cura fugit multo diluiturque mero."

"Magnum hoc vitium vino est, Pedes captat primum; luctator dolosu est."

"It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is truth."

"In proverbium cessit, sapientiam vino adumbrari."

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging."

"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup;… at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."

"It is not for kings, O Lemuel-- not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more."

"Wine that maketh glad the heart of man."

"We care not for money, riches, nor wealth; Old sack is our money, old sack is our wealth."

"Der Wein erfindet nichts, er schwatzt's nur aus."

"Vinum incendit iram."

"Like the best wine,… that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak."

"Day and night my thoughts incline To the blandishments of wine, Jars were made to drain, I think; Wine, I know, was made to drink."

"Wine in excess is a snare for the fool; it lessens strength and multiplies wounds."

"You need not hang up the ivy branch over the wine that will sell."

"When the wine's in, murder will out."

"He has had a smack of every sort of wine, from humble port to Imperial Tokay."

"The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink, and it favoureth malt: And being well brewed, long kept it will last, And drawing abide—if you draw not too fast."

"And must I wholly banish hence These red and golden juices, And pay my vows to Abstinence, That pallidest of Muses?"

"7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the ."

"11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened; the mirth of the land is gone."

"Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right."

"I'm fond of fire, and crickets, and all that, A lobster salad, and champagne, and chat."

"Moet, that wine most blest and heady, Or Veuve Cliquot, the finest class, Is brought in bottle chilled and ready And set beside the poet's glass. Like Hippocrene it sparkles brightly, It fizzes, foams, and bubbles lightly (A simile in many ways); It charmed me too, in other days: For its sake once, I squandered gladly My last poor pence… remember, friend? Its magic stream brought forth no end Of acting foolish, raving madly, And, oh, how many jests and rhymes, And arguments, and happy times!"

"We had champagne … what was the governor's compared with it? — no better than cider. Just fancy, not Cliquot but a special Cliquot-Matradura which means double Cliquot."

"At the beginning of the century, two brothers named S. were known in Moscow. They were even famous in their own way and in some circles. Both were prominent and handsome men. They expressed a certain debauchery, a certain bravado, quite common during the reign of Catherine, curbed and suppressed under Emperor Paul and again awakened, for a while, with the accession of Alexander. <…> In 1806, they were militiamen in a remote provincial town. At that very time, before December 12, the birthday of Emperor Alexander, the governor appeals to his highest authorities, asking permission to drink Malaga at the upcoming official dinner for the health of the sovereign emperor, and not Champagne, because all the Champagne available in the provincial town and in the districts had been drunk by the brothers S."

"...Champagne was sold at a high price in Moscow at that time. After the return of the inhabitants after the French occupation, the price for a bottle of champagne reached 25 rubles… But this price did not frighten anyone: inexorable Muscovites washed down their grief that the French were in Moscow, and their joy that they were driven out of Moscow, and performed all these funeral feasts for the French with their own French wine."

"Frederick the Great's father was a reveler, he loved wine, but did not like learning. One day he decided to let the Berlin Society of Sciences, founded by Leibniz, solve a problem: what causes the foam of champagne wine, which he really liked. The Academy asked for 60 bottles for a thorough study of the problem and the necessary tests. “Let they go to hell,” said the king, “it’s better for me to never know what’s matter, I can to drink champagne without them.”"

"CHAMPAGNE. The sign of a grand dinner. Pretend to despise it, saying: 'It isn't really a wine.' Arouses the enthusiasm of the lower orders. Russia drinks more of it than France. The medium through which French ideas have been spread throughout Europe. During the Regency people did nothing but drink champagne. But one doesn't drink champagne: one 'sips' it."

"Vozhevatov: Shall we have a cold drink, Mokiy Parmyonych?"

"In spite of the boredom which was consuming me, we were preparing to see the New Year in with exceptional festiveness, and were awaiting midnight with some impatience. The fact is, we had in reserve two bottles of champagne, the real thing, with the label of Veuve Clicquot; this treasure I had won the previous autumn in a bet with the station-master of D. when I was drinking with him at a christening. It sometimes happens during a lesson in mathematics, when the very air is still with boredom, a butterfly flutters into the class-room; the boys toss their heads and begin watching its flight with interest, as though they saw before them not a butterfly but something new and strange; in the same way ordinary champagne, chancing to come into our dreary station, roused us."

"In those days we drank nothing but champagne — if we had no champagne we drank nothing at all. We never drank vodka, as they do now."

"Only upstarts and parvenus shout to the whole tavern: “Champagne!” But every self-respecting person should use to say “wine.” And everyone around you should immediately understand that since you say wine, you mean champagne and not anything else. So in a restaurant, never shout: “Champagne!” Order to the waiter in a low voice, but impressively: “Be so kind as to bring me some wine.” He will understand. Rest assured. He will bring what you need."

"The clanking of spurs was heard in the entryway, and quite unexpectedly the loud lieutenant Prince Urusov Sr. entered the room and immediately plopped down on the sofa. “What? Sick, you say?! What nonsense! Your illness will not touch anyone and no one is interested. Her Majesty's Cuirassier men are always ready to drink again! Haven't you learned this yet? And then, my soul, you talk nonsense, your head cannot hurt: in the Assembly they only drink Mumm Sec Cordon Vert. Excellent brand! Yes, yes... and it never causes any cats. Drink only Mumm, only Sec, and only Cordon Vert all your life, and you'll always be fine. I beg you of one thing: never drink any Demi-sec! Believe me, my prince: firstly, any Demi-sec is emetic, and secondly, it's the same vulgarity as detachable cuffs or traveling in second class. So: Mumm Sec Cordon Vert, got it?..""

""...You're less of a judge of such matters, Mishka, than a calf is of swill. But I know what's what where liquor's concerned. The liquors and wines I've come to drink in my time! There's wine which foams out of the bottle like out of a mad dog almost before you've pulled the cork - God knows I'm not lying. In Poland, when we broke through the front and rode with Budionny to shake up the Poles, we took a certain estate by storm. <…> When our troop dashed into the estate on horseback there were officers feasting with the masterr — they weren't expecting us. We sabred them all in the orchard and on the stairs, but we took one prisoner. <…> Well, we went into the downstairs rooms and there was a huge table with all kinds of eats on it! Lovely sight it was… <…> Ay, we stuffed ourselves and drank that foaming wine till it we were stuffed up to our eyes. <…> We tugged at a cork and it flew out as though shot from a gun, and the froth boiled up in a great cloud. That wine made me fall off my horse three times that night. The moment I climbed into my saddle I was sent flying again as though blown clean off by the wind. Now if only I could always drink wine like that, a glass or two on an empty stomach, I'd live to be a hundred. But as things are, is anyone likely to live out his time? Do you call this drink, for instance? It's an infection, not a drink! It's enough to make you turn up your toes before your time!" With a nod Prokhor indicated the ewer of vodka and poured himself out another glass full to the brim."

"If you drink champagne in the morning, you must be an aristocrat... or a degenerate!"

"When a man says no to champagne, he says no to life."

"Lily on liquid roses floating— So floats yon foam o’er pink champagne— Fain would I join such pleasant boating, And prove that ruby main, And float away on wine!Those seas are dangerous, greybeards swear— Whose sea-beach is the goblet’s brim; And true it is—they drown old Care, But what care we for him, So we but float on wine! And true it is—they cross in pain, Who sober cross the Stygian ferry; But only make our —champagne, And we shall cross right merry, Floating away on wine!Old ’s self shall make him mellow, Then gaily row his boat from shore; While we, and every jovial fellow, Hear—unconcerned—the oar, That dips itself in wine!"

"Praise who will the duller liquor Juice of Portugal or Spain; Fill for me with lighter—quicker— Fill for me with Rose Champagne. See the glass its foam upgiving, Creaming—beading—round the brim, Such, were old Anacreon living, Such should be the wine for him! Elixir blest! Bacchus and Flora, 'Twas He proposed—She smiled compliance— Thee—a spell for mortal sorrow, Thee devised in gay alliance. Full of the plan, they leapt delighted From leafy couch, where each reposes, And while they plied their task united, (One gave the grapes, and one the roses,) Young Love stood near, with curious eye, And heedful watched the chemic union, And smiled to think how, by and bye, The play of looks, the soul's communion, And the tied tongue's first liberty Should thrive beneath that magic essence. And what, thou glorious alchemy! What though thy primal effervescence, Like Love's, too bright—too dear to stay— Like Love's—die almost in the tasting— Yet each I snatch, as best I may; Ah! why are both so little lasting."

"The last words of Anton Chekhov before he died were what? You remember? He said, 'Ich sterbe,' that is, 'I'm dying .' And later he added, 'Pour me some champagne.' And only then did he die. ...And Friedrich Schiller not only couldn't die, he couldn't live, without champagne. Do you know how he wrote? He'd put his feet in an icy bath, pour out the champagne, and write. He'd go through one glassful — and a whole act of a of a tragedy would be ready. He'd go through five glasses and a whole tragedy in five acts would be ready."

"Champagne in a lily! Champagne in a lily! With health and with wisdom it sparkles and shines! A shot of Mignon with one of Escamillio Champagne in a lily — a sacred wine."

"Pour my goblet with champagne again, I'm a Slav by heart, by stomach — Gallic man!"

"Lily on liquid roses floating— So floats yon foam o’er pink champagne— Fain would I join such pleasant boating, And prove that ruby main, And float away on wine!Those seas are dangerous, greybeards swear— Whose sea-beach is the goblet’s brim; And true it is—they drown old Care, But what care we for him, So we but float on wine! And true it is—they cross in pain, Who sober cross the Stygian ferry; But only make our —champagne, And we shall cross right merry, Floating away on wine!Old ’s self shall make him mellow, Then gaily row his boat from shore; While we, and every jovial fellow, Hear—unconcerned—the oar, That dips itself in wine!"

"Praise who will the duller liquor Juice of Portugal or Spain; Fill for me with lighter—quicker— Fill for me with Rose Champagne. See the glass its foam upgiving, Creaming—beading—round the brim, Such, were old Anacreon living, Such should be the wine for him! Elixir blest! Bacchus and Flora, 'Twas He proposed—She smiled compliance— Thee—a spell for mortal sorrow, Thee devised in gay alliance. Full of the plan, they leapt delighted From leafy couch, where each reposes, And while they plied their task united, (One gave the grapes, and one the roses,) Young Love stood near, with curious eye, And heedful watched the chemic union, And smiled to think how, by and bye, The play of looks, the soul's communion, And the tied tongue's first liberty Should thrive beneath that magic essence. And what, thou glorious alchemy! What though thy primal effervescence, Like Love's, too bright—too dear to stay— Like Love's—die almost in the tasting— Yet each I snatch, as best I may; Ah! why are both so little lasting."

"Now kepe yow fro the white and fro the rede, And namely fro the white wyn of Lepe That is to selle in Fysshstrete or in Chepe. This wyn of Spaigne crepeth subtilly In othere wynes, growynge faste by, Of which ther ryseth swich fumositee That whan a man hath dronken draughtes thre, And weneth that he be at hoom in Chepe, He is in Spaigne, right at the toune of Lepe."

"O for a Bowle of fatt Canary, Rich Palermo, sparkling Sherry Some Nectar else, from Juno’s Daiery, O these draughts would make us merry."

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."

"No more the milk of cows Shall pollute my private house Than the milk of the wild mares of the Barbarian; I will stick to port and sherry, For they are so very, very, So very, very, very, Vegetarian."

"FALSTAFF: Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me, nor a man cannot make him laugh. But that’s no marvel: he drinks no wine. There’s never none of these demure boys come to any proof, for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards, which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it: it ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish and dull and cruddy vapors which environ it, makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood, which before, cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts’ extremes. It illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain, the heart; who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage. And this valour comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it awork; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till sack commences it, and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant, for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land, manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first humane principle I would teach them should be to forswear thin potations, and to addict themselves to sack."

"We care not for mony, riches, or wealth, Old Sack is our mony, old Sack is our health, Then let's flock hither Like Birds of a feather, To drinke, to fling, To laugh and sing, Conferring our notes together, Conferring our notes together.Come let us laugh, let us drinke, let us sing, The winter with us is as good as the Spring, We care not a feather For wind, or for weather, But night and day We sport and play, Conferring our notes together, Conferring our notes together."

"Your best Sacke[s] are of Seres in Spaine, your smaller of Galicia and Portugall: your strong Sackes are of the Islands of the Canaries, and of Malligo."

"A happy end thus made of all your sport, Lead her where every Lover shou’d resort, Where Madam Sack’s enthron’d, the tempting’st Lass That e’er was seated in a Venice Glass. Last, that this sense of Pleasure may remain, Cast away Thought and fall to Drink again. Drink off the Glasses, swallow every Bowl, And pity him that sighs away his Soul For that poor trifle Woman, who is mine With one small Gallon of Immortal Wine. To get a Mistress Drinking is the knack; Love’s grand existence is Almighty Sack."

"Port is the wine proper to the heavy drinker, and it may be admitted that whereas champagne, claret, burgundy, and hock are all entirely beneficial and indeed, in a well-ordered constitution, essential to the digestion of food, port, and the very finest port at that, can be slightly deleterious. Its charm insidiously invites excess, and excess of port, though not in itself harmful, sometimes discloses latent infirmities. The heavy port drinker must be prepared to make some sacrifice of personal beauty and agility. Its martyrs are usually well content with the bargain, and in consolation it may be remarked that a red nose never lost a friend worth holding, and that by universal testimony the sharpest attacks of gout — are preceded by a period of peculiar mental lucidity. ... No one, I think, ever contracted gout by port-drinking. What can be said is that those who are naturally gouty may find their weakness aggravated by port. Port is not for the very young, the vain, and the active. It is the comfort of age, the companion of the scholar and philosopher. Those qualities of British university scholarship — alternations of mellow appreciation and acid criticism — may be plausibly derived from the habits of our Senior Common-rooms. ... Port, is of course, designed to be drunk after dinner. It should be drunk at the table; only in the masculine calm which follows the retirement of the women, when the decanter travels from hand to hand round the bare mahogany, can it be enjoyed at its best."

"The first duty of port is to be red."

"Any time you are not drinking Port is a waste of time."

"PUPPET JONAS: A Pint of Sack, score a Pint of Sack i' the Conney. COKES: Sack? you said but e'en now it should be Sherry. PUPPET JONAS: Why so it is; Sherry, Sherry, Sherry. COKES: Sherry, Sherry, Sherry. By my Troth he makes me merry."

"The life of mirth, and the joy of the earth, Is a cup of good olde Sherry."

"The next that stood up with a Countenance merry, Was a pert sort of Wine which the Moderns call Sherry."

"Sherry is a name much misused, and even in the strictest sense applicable to a great diversity of wine, from Manzanilla, as pale and dry as old paper, to the heavy, sweet, brown wine sold under a variety of names often as ‘East India’ or Solera. ... I do not, myself, find that the richer and sweeter sherries serve any purpose that is not more perfectly fulfilled by port, but this is purely an individual judgement. Nothing could be more delicious than a glass of pale, very dry Fino, chilled, at noon, in the height of summer. It makes an admirable apéritif before and at the beginning of a dinner. Like all good wines, it is best enjoyed in tranquillity; the ‘sherry party’ of recent growth is an abomination to me. For as long, however, as people continue to entertain between six and eight in the evening they will find Amontillados and Amorosos a useful knock-about standby, less deleterious and less expensive than cocktails."