Every man his own butler / By the author of the 'History and description of modern wines' [i.e. Cyrus Redding].

  • Cyrus Redding
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Every man his own butler / By the author of the 'History and description of modern wines' [i.e. Cyrus Redding]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    side of the bottle up that was uppermost in the bin^ while the liquid is poured, and not emptied out too near the dregs. The art of taking wine is the science of exciting agreeable conversation and eliciting brilliant thoughts for an idle hour between the repast and the dining-room. Wine makes some men dull; such persons should on no account drink the strong brandied wines of the south, but confine themselves to the light red French growths, or to the white, pregnant with carbonic gas. If these fail to promote cheerfulness; if with the light Burgundy, with Lafitte, or the etherial sparkle of champagne, a man continue unmoved, he may depend the innocent use of wine cannot be his. He may excite himself by the stronger kinds, and half intoxicate himself to raise a leaven of agreeability which is altogether artificial;— he may woo mirth “ sorrowfully,” hut he will only injure his stomach and cloud his brain. Oftentimes do Eng- lishmen drink themselves into taciturnity below-stairs, and, ascending to the drawing-room, sit silent and solemn as so many quakers, among the fair sex. Such are past the stage of innocent excitement by a rational quantity of the juice of the grape. They take it because the effect is a temporary indifference, an agreeable sus- pense from pleasure and from pain. Such are not the true enjoyers of wine in its legitimate use; and they should always rise and retire with the ladies, for the effect upon them is that of a narcotic. The true enjoyer of wine finds it exhilarate the spirits, increase the memory, promote cheerfulness; if he be something of a wit, it draws out his hoarded stores of good sayings and lively repartees, during the moment
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