Sharing, Discussing, and Enjoying: A Case for Drinking

It has never occurred to me that we should not enjoy wine.  it has been part of the cradle of Mediterranean civilisation for many millennia.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a wine drinking household where my parents would take a day or two to drink a bottle when on their own, and would delight in giving frequent hospitality with friends, always involving wines that my father too great delight in both selecting and sharing.

Even now, both nearly in their 90’s, they still do.

Ever since mankind first discovered that natural fruit and grain sugars would magically lose their sweetness and gain new qualities that would relax the mind and body, we have laboured and discussed as to how to perfect the art of fermentation and maturation.

The oldest literature that we have access to tells us the story of Noah planting a vineyard soon after the Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat in modern day Turkey.  An approximate date on this event is around 3000BC but we can safely assume that long before the flood, communities around the Mediterranean and Black Sea had learnt the essential processes of viticulture and winemaking.  The remains of winery, named Areni 1 Cave (Vayots Dzor, Armenia) have been dated to 4100BC and includes a wine press, fermentation vats, jars and cups.

Literature, Ancient History, and Festivities

Wine not only plays a prominent role throughout the Old and New Testaments but occupies every corner of ancient literature.

From The Last Supper and Homer’s Iliad (circa 700BC) to one of the first text books on agriculture with Columella’s De Re Rustica, vineyards and wine form a key role in banquets, festivities and sacred rituals. Its irreplaceable use within the service of eucharist in every Christian tradition, while within pagan tradition we have the largest surviving Roman temple in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dedicated to Bacchus, the god of wine.

Wine so pervades the daily lives of Mediterranean people that no historical priest or governor ever dared to question its central and important role as a beverage.  Only within the last 50 years has wine been removed as a daily ration for Italian prisoners.

Good times or bad, mankind needs a glass of wine in the same as he needs oxygen to breathe.

The Growth of Empire and How the Brits Drank all the Wine

It was Henry II with his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine that brought the region of Bordeaux and England under the same crown and a freedom to trade between London and Southwest France. This was after the Romans had brought their favourite wines from Italy, Spain and the Rhine to bring some pleasure and home comfort to the damp and misty land of Britannia.

Wines from the Cape came to our rescue during the Napoleonic Wars which at the same time saw English families adding a dash of brandy to the rather rough wines of the Douro Valley, thus creating the famous sweet and strong Port wines.

Then, over the years, wine has spread beyond the "Old World" to new horizons: Argentina, Australia, North and South America, New Zealand.

Sadly, we slightly lost our focus on the wines of Eastern Europe during the Cold War years but it was Sir Winston who had a particular fondness for the Melnik grape in Bulgaria.

It is of no surprise that London became the most important crossroads for the global wine trade with its auction houses, competitions, journalism and developed restaurant scene that allowed wines from all over the globe to stand alongside each other and be compared.

How lucky wine drinkers are to live within the UK and have such ready access to literally all wines!

The Lunar Society and the Industrial Revolution

Towards the start of the great expansion of invention that followed the Industrial Revolution, we encounter the strange but brilliant Lunar Society of Birmingham.

Amongst its members were James Watt (steam engine), Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, and Jospeh Priestley (isolated oxygen). This sociable group of minds exchanged and fed on each other’s ideas and encouragement to bring us a litany of invention, progressive thought, government and literature.

Why Lunar in the title?

As yet, Edison had not invented the light bulb and the street gas lights were in the early stages of evolution. So, to counter the darkness, they met on a Monday as close to the full moon as possible when they had a good chance of each member finding his way home after dinner.

Why might they struggle...?

The assumption being that some of the members may have enjoyed a glass or two beyond sobriety, and needed some natural light to help them navigate the Birmingham streets!

Who said that wine subdues creativity, thought and conversation? Surely in this instance, it enhances it.

The Story of Madeira

I particularly like the story of Madeira wine, when barrels of wine from the Portuguese Atlantic island were transported across the tropical waters to America’s East Coast colonies.

Quite by accident, on arrival, the wine tasted different to when it left port in Madeira.

The barrels had been warmed and baked by the sun during its journey; the strong wine had developed to a delicious, crisp, sweet, burnt-caramel flavour that was both pleasing to the palate, complex in flavour, and able to last decades (even centuries!).

At Caviste, we have been honoured to taste wines approaching 100 years old during our own tasting events.

Wine & Health

It is this paragraph in which I must tread most carefully...

There are hazards to the right and to the left in the world of alcohol. Wine can be addictive, and cause damage to one’s health, family, and finances.  From the nakedness of Noah and the black dog of depression that afflicted Churchill, history is littered with sad tales the pitfalls and dangers that alcohol can bring.

Little and often is surely better than the once-a-week bender?

We have customers who will only drink at the weekend when they will have a small amount of lovely wine. Perhaps a half-bottle.

At Caviste we have the advantage of occasionally taking home a half-drunk sample bottle from a supplier to try with our better halves over a home-cooked meal. We talk,  discuss the wine, and whether we think it will sell well. A couple of small glasses and the bottle is finished… but only if it is good.

But Why the Bottle?

For most of us a bottle of wine is to much for one persono in a single sitting.

Our good writer friend, Jancis Robinson, says that she and her husband, Nick, now struggle to finish a bottle unlike their ability perhaps a decade or two earlier to have no problems polishing off 75cl between them in an evening.  My parents, aged 88 and 89, are the same, so their solution is simply to drink better and more slowly.

A Tonic for Friendship and Discussion

Sharing a bottle means conversation, time away from the PC and all our many screens. It requires one to pause, usually to eat, talk about the wine and reflect on the day.

If there's more than two people around the table, maybe even 4+, then we can always look to the larger formats. Certainly, I think parties should be an occasion for magnums which look such fun on a well laid table.

If there's 8 or more at yours? Then a Jeroboam is the order of the day!

A Case for Drinking

The Caviste team - Ethan, Bill, and Charles - have all contributed two bottles each, to these two case (one of Six Bottles and the other Twelve Bottles) which covers the spectrum of countries, grapes, and traditions. 

As we step into a potentially turbulent 2025 of politics, finances, education, and sport, the certainty, comfort, and fun that good wine brings is a welcome distraction. These bottles, A Case for Drinking: Six Bottles or Twelve Bottles, are for sharing, thinking, discussing, enjoying. And because it is still January, we have applied a generous discount on the price and will provide a set of printed tasting notes. 

Step outside your normal repertoire of bottles to see just a shade of what our range offers. A Case for Drinking - the Six Bottles or Twelve Bottles option - are for the mind, the history in each bottle, one’s general cheer, and wellbeing.

Cheers and Happy January - now nearly February!