Is This Bottle Corked__ The Secret Life of Wine - Kathleen Burk [81]
We live in stern and pursed-lipped times. The reign of Dionysos, god of wine, of fertility, of ecstasies and collective joy, is quite o’erthrown. In his place stands political Apollo: virtuous, controlled, ordered, and orderly. Perhaps we should all get together over a bottle or two and see if we can’t find a middle way …
What is a connoisseur?
THE QUESTION IS perfectly answered in the definition, and example, given by Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary, and nothing else needs to be said:
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.
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