Colonial Printing

Aren’t there also specific wines which fit certain uses better than all other types do? Indeed there are! For example, the one wine to sip while puffing a fragrant Havana cigar is red Port. If it had not been for the time-honored British custom of after-dinner Port for the gentlemen, while the ladies retired from the table, the Portuguese Port industry would not be what it is today.

While history fails to record the specific wine type with which ladies of Elizabethan times bathed their faces to improve their complexions, we do know that Anna Held’s legendary wine bath could only have been had in Champagne. Perhaps they washed with a fine Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Pinot%20Blanc/)?

And Lucien B. Johnson, the champion wine salesman of the years immediately preceding prohibition, always insisted that the wine with which to woo a lady is not Champagne. “Champagne only makes folks talkative,” Lucien used to say, “but Burgundy, warmed to the temperature of the room, makes people affectionate. Yes, Burgundy is the only love wine!”

You cannot marry off your daughter respectably these days without serving Champagne at the reception. It is usually suggested to the bride’s parents that they buy the least expensive kind, because the caterers always hide the labels with napkins, anyway. This also applies to ship launchings, where the Champagne is wasted.

At the Jewish holiday feasts the wine that flows must be Kosher I’Pesach, but fortunately the rabbis’ hechsher seals are placed on a complete variety of wine types, so that the celebrants do have a choice.

For the sick, the oftenest-prescribed wine seems to be Port, which is also the base for some of the proprietary medicines sold in drugstores, including some of the old-time favorite tonics. This type again gets the call in the pleasant custom of laying down a bottle of wine when a child is born, to age until his twenty-first birthday.

And completing the round of the clock, Port is also the favorite nightcap wine, because of its ability to induce a pleasant night’s sleep. But wait! How about morning wines? It would be a grave omission indeed to skip Champagne breakfasts and Sunday brunches. For the former, serve a choice of white and pink Champagnes. For the latter, although Rhine wines and Champagne are both popular, the dash of color that Rose adds is delightful.

And speaking of wine in the morning, there was once a famous connoisseur who always began the day by brushing his teeth with Viognier (http://www.wineaccess.com/wine/grape/Viognier/). Although it may seem to defeat the purpose of brushing your teeth by brushing them with white wine, to a wine lover, it is the perfect toothpaste and mouthwash.

Banish any fear that you might serve a wrong kind of wine-unless you happen to be completely taste blind. Do you need a chart to tell you not to serve candy with steak? Of course not! Likewise you need no detailed instructions to suggest one of the sweet wines with a sweet dessert. You certainly would not serve dry, tart Claret with your crepes suzette-not if you have ever tasted Claret, that is.

Sarah Martin
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