Wine has a long history; its origin can be traced back to ancient times, although grapevine cultivation has been around way before. 80% of grape production goes to winemaking.
Like other great things discovered, wine came about from a fortunate stroke of serendipity. Around 7000 BC, someone drank a fermented grape juice, and wine was finally born!
Georgia is said to be where the earliest wine production started, although other evidence also showed traces of winemaking in China around 6000 BC. It slowly spread to different countries such as Greece and Italy. The oldest winery is in the mountain area of Armenia.
When grape juice ferments, wine is created. Oenologists perform intricate tasks to ensure that the quality of the wine is maintained. The grape, the oak used for the barrel, and the storage temperature and humidity affect the quality of wine produced.
Wine is undoubtedly a drink enjoyed around the world as it brings not only pleasure but also health benefits. Research shows that wine is a good antioxidant, reduces the risk of heart disease, and even helps prevent cancer.
Whether you’re a wine expert, a budding sommelier, or an oenophile who appreciates wine, you will love to read more about it.
Here are some of the best quotes you can read—best enjoyed while you sip on a glass of wine!
1. “Wine, like food, is so emotional. If you think about it, so much of the courting ritual is surrounded by wine and food. There’s a built-in romance to wine.” – Padma Lakshmi
2. “I prefer old-world wines like Lafite Rothschild and Margaux.” – Ernie Els
3. “Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.” – Thomas Fuller
4. “I want people to know their palate is a snowflake. We all like different things. Why should we all have the same taste in wines?” – Gary Vaynerchuk
5. “Wine is a peep-hole on a man.” – Alcaeus
6. “We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born. Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.” – Carl Jung
7. “I’m like old wine. They don’t bring me out very often, but I’m well preserved.” – Rose Kennedy
8. “This is the great fault of wine; it first trips up the feet: it is a cunning wrestler.” – Titus Maccius Plautus
9. “Sometimes it would be nice to just have some red wine with dinner, but it’s not worth the risk. I have a great life, a great situation. Why would I want to risk self-destructive behaviour?” – Kristin Davis
10. “So, I simply switched over to wine because it was not carbonated.” – Peter Steele
11. “Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth give him too much, the same.” – Blaise Pascal
12. “I can no more think of my own life without thinking of wine and wines and where they grew for me and why I drank them when I did and why I picked the grapes and where I opened the oldest procurable bottles, and all that, than I can remember living before I breathed.” – M. F. K. Fisher
13. “Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.” – Charles Caleb Colton
14. “When the sommelier Enrico Bernardo moved to Paris from Italy nearly two decades ago, the world of French gastronomy brutally rejected him. No matter that he had won the competition for best sommelier in Italy; when he asked 30 restaurateurs for work in their wine cellars, all turned him down.” – Elaine Sciolino
15. “Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.” – Heraclitus
16. “Well, you know, when you go into a restaurant, one of the scariest things is the wine list, so whenever I’m really feeling intimidated, I’ll just pick a wine type, like a Chianti or Brunello or a Burgundy, and I’ll pick a year that’s missing and ask for that one.” – Alton Brown
17. “I love having wine with my meals. And if I splurge, I’m going to splurge big, because if I deny my cravings, it just ends up backfiring on me, you know?” – Rachel Nichols
18. “This young wine may have a lot of tannins now, but in five or 10 years it is going to be spectacular, despite the fact that right now it tastes like crude oil. You know this is how it is supposed to taste at this stage of development.” – Itzhak Perlman
19. “I love wines, except when I’m dieting.” – Raymond Burr
20. “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” – Benjamin Franklin
21. “Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.” – Joan Collins
22. “A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.” – Clifton Fadiman
23. “There’s nothing better than a glass of wine, a girlfriend, and a long talk.” – Karen Fairchild
24. “Marriage is like wine. It is not be properly judged until the second glass.” – Douglas William Jerrold
25. “I spoke to the ‘Wine Spectator’ because that’s PR; that’s how you sell wine.” – Alain Wertheimer
26. “It’s a really interesting and diverse business. You’re a farmer first, then a winemaker, then you’re onto marketing and distribution. So it’s multi-faceted and really engaging. I’ve learned more in the last couple years than in the ten prior to that, so it’s been pretty interesting.” – Drew Bledsoe
27. “To buy very good wine nowadays requires only money. To serve it to your guests is a sign of fatigue.” – William F. Buckley, Jr.
28. “I always knew the importance of it, since I was three or four years old my mother used to feed me wine and water. I grew up with wine as liquid food.” – Robert Mondavi
29. “A gourmet meal without a glass of wine just seems tragic to me somehow.” – Kathy Mattea
30. “Best wine if you’re stranded on a deserted island? 1982 Salon Champagne.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
31. “Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, I’m finding enjoyment in things that stop time. Just the simple act of tasting a glass of wine is its own event. You’re not downing a glass of wine in the midst of doing something else.” – David Hyde Pierce
32. “As far as a cocktail, I do like good wines, basically with meals, and good champagnes.” – Bobby Sherman
33. “At the end of the day, I let myself have a glass of wine.” – Jane Seymour
34. Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it.” – John Cleese
35. “The scent of wine, oh how much more agreeable, laughing, praying, celestial and delicious it is than that of oil!” – Francois Rabelais
36. “And much as Wine has played the Infidel, And robbed me of my Robe of Honor Well, I often wonder what the Vintners buy One half so precious as the stuff they sell.” – Edward Fitzgerald
37. “Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.” – Colin Powell
38. “I am not old but mellow like good wine.” – Stephen Phillips
39. “Without sulfites, wine may smell and taste funky or re-ferment in the bottle. Many distributors and shop owners are consequently reluctant to stock wines made without sulfites.” – Roger Morris
40. “I think wine is such a big universe that it’s kind of like food – it’s intimidating to a lot of people, myself included.” – Padma Lakshmi
41. “I do love my wine. I’d opt to drink my calories rather than eat them every time, so I cut out the breads, potatoes, pastas, cheeses and desserts in an effort to get my healthy angel and unhealthy demon to compromise.” – Rachel Nichols
42. “Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.” – George Herbert
43. “Wine is incredibly sexy.” – Eric Trump
44. “In the wine world, crusaders would have wine consumers believe that the only wines of merit are something completely indefinable but which they call ‘authentic’ or ‘natural.’” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.
45. “Wine is something to enjoy. We get sick and tired of people who pick it apart and talk about its ‘saucy nuances.’” – Pat Paulsen
46. “I don’t drink coffee. I like nice wines with dinner.” – Jeff Greene
47. “I think the British have the distinction above all other nations of being able to put new wine into old bottles without bursting them.” – Clement Attlee
48. “Truth comes out in wine.” – Pliny the Elder
49. “Wine is a treacherous friend who you must always be on guard for.” – Christian Nestell Bove
50. “Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” –Aristophanes
51. “I could probably die happy with a cheeseboard and a glass of French red wine – that’s my idea of a perfect dinner.” – Deirdre O’Kane
52. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you ought to like… Some wines that some experts think are absolutely exquisite don’t appeal to me at all.” – John Cleese
53. “It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.” – Charles Baudelaire
54. “Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
55. “I believe that the responsibility of the winemaker is to take that fruit and get it into the bottle as the most natural and purest expression of that vineyard, of the grape varietal or blend, and of the vintage.” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.
56. “The world has changed – through technology, through wine-making techniques, the quality of wine is greater than it’s ever been. Whereas ten, fifteen years ago it was very easy to find lots of bad wine, it’s kind of hard now. The technology, the science – it’s like, are you kidding? We’re in the golden years of wine!” – Gary Vaynerchuk
57. “They are not long, the days of wine and roses.” – Ernest Dowson
58. “I’m really, really dumb about describing wine, but I like wine that’s full-bodied and dry.” – Esai Morales
59. “To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.” – Clifton Fadiman
60. “Time, motion and wine cause sleep.” – Ovid
61. “I can no more think of my own life without thinking of wine and wines and where they grew for me and why I drank them when I did and why I picked the grapes and where I opened the oldest procurable bottles, and all that, than I can remember living before I breathed.” – M. F. K. Fisher
62. “I would say 95% of the time, because you just can’t remember your lines if you’re drinking alcohol. I would say about 95% of the time it was grape juice or this fake wine, which was horrible.” – Thomas Haden Church
63. “We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.” – Eduardo Galeano
64. “There are many great wine producers from all over the world making fantastic wines. Italian wines especially are making an enormous comeback after sometimes being labeled as inexpensive jug wines.” – Rocco DiSpirito
65. “I’m on a lot of airplanes, so I just sip on red wine thinking of stupid ideas and, when I think of it, I wanna make it happen.” – Bam Margera
66. “Even more importantly, it’s wine, food and the arts. Incorporating those three enhances the quality of life.” – Robert Mondavi
67. “I like my wine like my women – ready to pass out.” – Robin Williams
68. “The world has changed – through technology, through wine-making techniques, the quality of wine is greater than it’s ever been. Whereas ten, fifteen years ago it was very easy to find lots of bad wine, it’s kind of hard now. The technology, the science – it’s like, are you kidding? We’re in the golden years of
wine!” – Gary Vaynerchuk
69. “Hmmm… cooking with wine? I usually drink wine while cooking… I do a good braised short ribs with cabernet, though. We’re big red wine drinkers here. All that research showing that it’s good for you takes the guilt away.” – Alafair Burke
70. “Critics have done the wine industry a lot of good overall.” – Robert Mondavi
71. “The first wine I drank, a Chateau Haut-Brion, I was 22, it was my first glass of wine, and I discovered voluptuousness. From there, I started tasting French wines, then Spanish wines, then Italian wines.” – Carole Bouquet
72. “It is a maudlin and indecent verity that comes out through the strength of wine.” – Joseph Conrad
73. “Do not let friars enter your wine cellars for fear they will bless every barrel and change the wine into blood.” – John Wycliffe
74. “Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.” – Fran Lebowitz
75. “Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” – Pope John XXIII
76. “Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste.” – Logan Pearsall Smith
77. “It is giving me a great satisfaction, because I had the notion that we could make great wines equal to the greatest wines in the world, and everybody said it was impossible.” – Robert Mondavi
78. “Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.” – Samuel Johnson
79. “Christopher Plummer once told me that he never orders a wine without first confirming that the restaurant has a second bottle in case he loves it.” – Kenneth Cranham
80. “Great wine is always enhanced by great food.” – Kenneth Cranham
81. “Life is a glass of wine and having your feet washed – it’s a biblical event, might I add. This is part of mankind’s story. You are always looking for a moment to take a break.” – Mick Fleetwood
82. “Wine and women do not go with song. Alcohol is the worst enemy of the imagination.” – Patrick Kavanagh
83. “Wine is bottled poetry.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
84. “The Italians always made good wine, but you had the impression they were friendly guys in straw hats running family vineyards with slaves or something so that the vino was never more than ten bucks a bottle.” – Joe Bob Briggs
85. “For me, a $20 wine that drinks like a $40 wine in terms of complexity and interest is a value, while a $5 wine that is not very good is not a value at all in my opinion.” – Deborah Harkness
86. “The reality is that I’m making better wine than I thought I would. The whole process is simple but beautiful.” – Brian Schmidt
87. “One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.” – Samuel Johnson
88. “Get over jet-lag quickly. I think a lot of people waste the first few days sleeping in the wrong time zone. Sometimes I take melatonin but at other times a glass of wine will do it.” – Jane Seymour
89. “The wine of youth does not always clear with advancing years; sometimes it grows turbid.” – Carl Jung
90. “Wine is connected to abundance.” – Carole Bouquet
91. “My nose itched, and I knew I should drink wine or kiss a fool.” – Jonathan Swift
92. “What is wine? It is the grape present in another form; its essence is there, though the fruit which produced it grew thousands of miles away, and perished years ago. So the object of many a tender thought may be spiritually present, in defiance of space – and fond recollections cherished in defiance of time.” – Samuel Lover
93. “As a good wine must be kept in a good cask, so a wholesome body is the proper foundation for a well-appointed inner ground.” – Johannes Tauler
94. “Essentially, wines are fermented grape juice, so I’m trying to make the point that the wine world is about scores and marketing and kind of creating a scarce resource where they don’t really exist.” – Joe Bastianich
95. “Silver and ermine and red faces full of port wine.” – John Betjeman
96. “Our very long-term prospective hinges on making the best possible wine we can.” – Drew Bledsoe
97. “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.” – William Shakespeare
98. “Very good wine was bought at ten pounds per pipe, the contract price; but the superior quality was fifteen pounds; and some of this was not much inferior to the best London Madeira.” – William Bligh
99. “A sweetheart is a bottle of wine, a wife is a wine bottle.” – Charles Baudelaire
100. “Winemakers have to adapt to what they’re given by nature: the vines, the fruit, the soil and the weather.” – Laura Anne Gilman
101. “The Chinese do make vast quantities of wine for home consumption, but you wouldn’t want to drink it yourself.” – Simon Hoggart
102. “I’ve always wanted to improve on the idea of living well, In moderation, wine is good for you – mentally, physically, and spiritually.” – Robert Mondavi
103. “I’m like the wine. The older I get, the better I get.” – Zlatan Ibrahimovic
104. “The wine I produce is not for keeping. It’s the wine you want when meeting friends for a game of cards.” – Gerard Depardieu
105. “There are so many impassioned winemakers. I think there are more impassioned winemakers than chefs.” – Alain Ducasse
106. “I’ve always loved my red wine, and when I’m not working I can open a bottle too many. I love to cook, so it’s one for me and one for the casserole. I would consume a bottle of wine on my own of an evening and then literally pass out.” – Amanda Donohoe
107. “Wine to me is something that brings people together. Wine does promote conversation and promote civility, but it’s also fascinating. It’s the greatest subject to study. No matter how much you learn, every vintage is going to come at you with different factors that make you have to think again.” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.
108. “A good margarita, a good red wine, I like expensive alcohol, but not a lot of it. I don’t like to throw up.” – Denise Richards
109. “When I put my nose in a glass, it’s like tunnel vision. I move into another world, where everything around me is just gone, and every bit of mental energy is focused on that wine.” – Robert M. Parker, Jr.
110. “Wine pricing is an art – like painting.” – Joe Bastianich
111. “I’m like old wine. They don’t bring me out very often – but I’m well preserved.” – Rose Kennedy
112. “If I could drink only one wine, it would be Champagne.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
113. “Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same.” – Blaise Pascal
114. “I’m not afraid to call a wine that tastes like Skittles or green peppers mixed with orange marmalade. I’ll say, ‘It tastes like chicken.’ I mean, that’s not what people think of when they think of wine, but that’s what it tastes like to me and it hits home.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
115. “I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent.” – Henry Ward Beecher
116. “It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.” – Charles Baudelaire
117. “You have a wine tasting of different years, and we’re sort of doing that with our music, giving them a taste of what Journey used to be like.” – Jonathan Cain
118. “What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
119. “Mixing one’s wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.” – Bertolt Brecht
120. “You can enjoy a $15 bottle of wine as much as you can enjoy a $100 bottle of wine.” – Joe Bastianich
121. “I always wear blue shirts and I like wine or purple ties.” – Jim Lehrer
122. “People are more comfortable learning about wine because now they can just Google, you know, ‘Soave,’ and say, ‘Oh, O.K., cool.’” – Gary Vaynerchuk
123. “The voice is an instrument that you really must take time to develop. It’s like a good red wine Give it time.” – Cecilia Bartoli
124. “I put everything I can into the mulberry of my mind and hope that it is going to ferment and make a decent wine. How that process happens, I’m sorry to tell you I can’t describe.” – John Hurt
125. “I think musicians have always been drinking and sharing a good wine. It is, I hate to say this, another form of vice.” – Tom Araya
126. “It’s a real player move to take a girl wine-tasting on a date – she’ll like that.” – Big Sean
127. “Wine is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babes, tea the drink of women, and water the drink of beasts.” – John Stuart Blackie
128. “As the best wine doth make the sharpest vinegar, so the deepest love turneth to the deadliest hate.” – John Lyly
129. “Wine lovers have known for centuries that decanting wine before serving it often improves its flavor. Whatever the dominant process, the traditional decanter is a rather pathetic tool to accomplish it. A few years ago, I found I could get much better results by using an ordinary kitchen blender.” – Nathan Myhrvold
130. “The world of wine is more creative than the world of cooking.” – Alain Ducasse
131. “When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.” – Samuel Rutherford
132. “Cheap wine is defined by its price, and it depends on personal spending limits. So for me, any wine under $10 is cheap.” – Deborah Harkness
133. “Selling wine is all about sizing people up, and it takes a certain amount of chutzpah. The tableside bottle sell is a very funny thing – you take a look at the guy’s blazer, what kind of shoes he’s wearing, what kind of broad he’s with. Is he trying to be a hero?” – Joe Bastianich
134. “If you go back to the Greeks and Romans, they talk about all three – wine, food, and art – as a way of enhancing life.” – Robert Mondavi
135. “Thanks be to God. Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company.” – Samuel Pepys
136. “I like to drink young wines, wines which are robust and have a lot of forward fruit to them.” – Thomas Keller
137. “What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.” – Diogenes
138. “I’m actually surprised how technical a lot of commercial wine production is. Things are done very much from an industrial chemistry point of view at certain price points, but that’s not the impression you get with wine.” – Brian Schmidt
139. “I drank more wine when I wasn’t working as much, to be honest.” – Thomas Keller
140. “A good wine has many qualities, I think. If drunk moderately, it is healthy and good for your heart.” – Tom Araya
141. “I never taste the wine first in restaurants, I just ask the waiter to pour.” – Nigella Lawson
142. “I never drank except a couple sips of wine at Thanksgiving.” – Carol Alt
143. “You don’t do oysters and red wine together. That’s a no-no; you just don’t do that. I love a nice white wine with oysters.” – Grace Jones
144. “Wine comes in at the mouth And love comes in at the eye That’s all we shall know for truth Before we grow old and die.” – William Butler Yeats
145. “Many mainstream winemakers use indigenous yeasts rather than commercially grown ones to ferment their grapes – precisely what natural winemakers advocate.” – Roger Morris
146. “I want to make wines that harmonize with food – wines that almost hug your tongue with gentleness.” – Robert Mondavi
147. “Oh Cup-bearer, set my glass afire with the light of wine!” – Hafez
148. “I’m not afraid to call a wine that tastes like Skittles or green peppers mixed with orange marmalade. I’ll say, ‘It tastes like chicken.’ I mean, that’s not what people think of when they think of wine, but that’s what it tastes like to me and it hits home.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
149. “I don’t try to match wine with food, I just drink what I like. And I think a lot of people are going towards that now, which never used to be in the past.” – Mario Lemieux
150. “Wine has been with civilized man from the beginning.” – Robert Mondavi
151. “I enjoy wine collecting and great food.” – Deep Roy
152. “From age 16, I lived and breathed wine. I read every magazine and book about wine.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
153. “I would say that a good shoe is exactly like a good wine. These shoes are going to stay and last for a long time.” – Christian Louboutin
154. “Now the restaurants have begun to catch up with the wine-making; there are numerous great restaurants in Napa Valley, and it’s wonderful because the people are there for just that: great food and great wine.” – Thomas Keller
155. “There’s something about having a great bottle of wine and a great cigar. Nothing compares to it.” – D. L. Hughley
156. “Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate.” – Gina Barreca
157. “Age can be wonderful for red wine, but not for spacecraft.” – Nathan Myhrvold
158. “Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures.” – M. F. K. Fisher
159. “Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.” – Samuel Johnson
160. “You can be drinking the wine today, but picking the grapes tomorrow.” – Jonathan Tucker
161. “Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.” – Thomas Aquinas
162. “Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy.” – Henry Fielding
163. “Wine is valued by its price, not its flavour.” – Anthony Trollope
164. “I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” – W. C. Fields
165. “That I be not as those are who spend the day in complaining of headache and the night in drinking the wine which gives the headache!” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
166. “When I read Deborah Brenner’s book ‘Women of the Vine’ about women wine makers, I was impressed that many of the women she had interviewed had come to wine making later in life as a second career.” – Rebecca Pidgeon
167. “Always carry a corkscrew and the wine shall provide itself.” – Basil Bunting
168. “People mature with age and experience. I hope I more resemble a fine wine than bad vinegar.” – Rick Kaplan
