Sommelier and wine quotes, and who really said them

A good quote can open a tasting or finish a caption. A wrong one can embarrass you in front of the one guest who knows better. So every quote here has a real source, and the famous ones nobody actually said are marked as such.

Quotes you can use, with their source

• “…and the wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson, writing about Napa Valley wine in The Silverado Squatters (1883).
• “I drink champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad.” Lily Bollinger, who ran Champagne Bollinger. It is the first line of her famous answer about when she drinks it.
• “…to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.” Benjamin Franklin, in a 1779 letter to the Abbé Morellet, about rain falling on the vineyards.
• Wine is “one of the most civilized things in the world”. Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (1932).

Famous quotes they never said

• “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” Dom Pérignon never said it. The line comes from champagne marketing in the 1800s, long after he died.
• “Beer is proof that God loves us.” Franklin wrote about wine, and about rain turning into wine. The beer version is a modern misquote.
• “In victory you deserve champagne; in defeat you need it.” Usually credited to Napoleon, with no reliable source.
• “Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” Usually credited to Galileo, with no reliable source.

Love the line anyway? Use it, but say “often attributed to”. Your guests will trust you more for it.

Lines from my years on the floor

• Sell the feeling, not the score.
• The best bottle on the list is the one the guest will remember.
• Ask what they love before you ask what they want to spend.
• A great sommelier talks less and listens more.
• Wine is the only thing on the table that keeps changing in the glass.

If you share one, credit it to SOMM DIGI. For more on the job behind the lines, read about the sommelier ranks and what each sommelier pin means.

Questions people ask