Ambrose Bierce was a great satirist. Be sure to read his great work, The Devil's Dictionary, even the parts that have nothing to do with wine.
By modern we mean quotes from the twentieth and twenty-first century. We forced the list a bit by including Oscar Wilde who died in 1900 - he seems to be quite a modern guy. Please note the absence of quotes from the twenty-first century. Get cracking.
A German wine label is one of the things life's too short
for, a daunting testimony to that peculiar nation's love of detail and
organization.
Kingsley Amis, British novelist, (1922-1995) in Everyday Drinking
ABSTAINER, n: a weak person who yields to the temptation of
denying himself a pleasure.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, (1842-1914) in The Devil's Dictionary
Wine, madam, is God's next best gift to man.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, (1842-1914) in The Devil's Dictionary
CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something and nothing
about anything else. An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway
collision, some wine was poured on his lips to revive him. "Pauillac,
1873," he murmured and died.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, (1842-1914) in The Devil's Dictionary
WINE, n. Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Union as
"liquor," sometimes as "rum”.
Ambrose Bierce, American author, (1842-1914) in The Devil's Dictionary
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!
Bond in Goldfinger, (1964)
And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine,
'I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine'.
G.K. Chesterton, British author (1874-1936) in Wine and Water
No animal ever invented anything as bad as drunkenness - or as
good as drink.
G.K. Chesterton, British author, (1874-1936)
Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life cycle
comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not treated with reasonable
respect it will sicken and die.
Remember gentlemen, it's not just France we are fighting
for, its Champagne!
Winston Churchill, English statesman, (1874-1965)
What is man, when you come to think upon him, but a minutely
set, ingenious machine for turning with infininite artfulness, the red wine of
Shiraz into urine?
Isak Dineson, Danish author, (1885-1962) in Seven Gothic Tales
What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?
W. C. Fields, American comedian, (1880-1946)
I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields, American comedian,(1880-1946)
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.
W. C. Fields, American comedian, (1880-1946) in Never Give a Sucker an Even
Break
During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our
corkscrew. We were compelled to live on food and water for several days.
W. C. Fields, American comedian, (1880-1946) in My Little Chickadee
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
Ernest Hemingway, American author, (1899-1961)
In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and
normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight.
Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult;
it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.
Ernest Hemingway, American author, (1899-1961)
Wine … offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation
than possibly any other purely sensory thing which may be purchased.
Ernest Hemingway, American author, (1899-1961)
Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and
one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the
greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and
appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing.
Ernest Hemingway, American author, (1899-1961) in Death in the Afternoon
What is better than to sit at the end of a day and drink wine with friends,
or substitute for friends.
James Joyce, Irish writer, (1882-1941)
My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne.
John Maynard Keynes, British economist, (1883-1946)
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine. href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Fran_Lebowitz/">Fran Lebowitz, American writer and humorist, (1950- )
Our hypothetical rich client might even have ordered a
Pommard, because it was listed at a higher price...He would have never learned
[about other wines]. A man who is rich in his adolescence is almost
doomed to be a dilettante at table. This is not because all millionaires are
stupid but because they are not impelled to experiment.
A.J. Liebling, American writer, (1904-1963) in Between Meals
Three are the things I shall never attain--Envy, content and
sufficient champagne.
Dorothy Parker, American writer and humorist, (1893-1967)
You can have too much champagne to drink but you can never have
enough.
Elmer Rice, American playwright, (1892-1967)
...I loved the [story] about how a great wine connoisseur
invited the composer [Brahms] to dinner. 'This is the Brahms of my cellar,' he
said to his guests, producing a dust-covered bottle and pouring some onto the
master's glass. Brahms looked first at the color of the wine, then sniffed its
bouquet, finally took a sip, and put the glass down without saying a word.
'Hmmm,' Brahms muttered. 'Better bring your Beethoven!'
Artur Rubinstein, Polish pianist, (1887-1982) in My Young Years
Wine had such ill effects on Noah’s health that it was all
he could do to live 950 years. Show me a total abstainer that ever lived that
long.
Will Rogers, American humorist, (1879-1935)
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the
morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
Frank Sinatra, American singer, (1915-1998)
Wine is bottled poetry.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (1850-1894)
Wine in California is still in the experimental stage; and
when you taste a vintage, grave economical questions are involved. The
beginning of vine-planting is like the beginning of mining for the precious
metals: the wine-grower also "prospects." One corner of land after
another is tried with one kind of grape after another. This is a failure; that
is better; third is best. So, bit by bit, they grope about for their Clos
Vougeot and Lafite. Those lodes and pockets of earth, more precious than the
precious ores, that yield inimitable fragrance and soft fire, those virtuous
Bonanzas where the soil has sublimated under sun and stars to something finer,
and the wine is bottled poetry.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (1850-1894) in The Silverado
Squatters
There are no standards of taste in wine... Each man's own
taste is the standard, and a majority vote cannot decide for him or in any
slightest degree affect the supremacy of his own standard.
Mark Twain, American author, (1835-1910)
Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just
right.
Mark Twain, American author, (1835-1910)
By comparing what we know today with what the ancients appear to
have known we can guess at the kinds of wine they drank.
Alec Waugh, British novelist, (1898-1981)
You Americans have the loveliest wine in the world, you know, but
you don't realize it. You call them domestic and that's enough to start trouble
anywhere.
H. G. Wells, British novelist and historian, (1866-1946)
Alcohol, if taken in sufficient quantities, can give one the
illusion of drunkenness.
Oscar Wilde, Anglo-Irish playwright, (1854-1900)
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
Oscar Wilde, Anglo-Irish playwright, (1854-1900)
The problem with some people is that when they aren't drunk,
they're sober.
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, (1865-1939)
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
Henny Youngman, American comedian, (1906-1998)
You may be surprised at the variety of wine quotes, sayings and proverbs about wine. Make sure to check out the different categories while enjoying your favorite wine.