Wine quotes: funny, for friends, classic and short

A good quote can open a toast or finish a caption. A wrong one can embarrass you in front of the one guest who knows. So the classics below come with their sources, the internet favourites are marked as anonymous, and the famous lines nobody can trace say “often attributed to”.

Classic wine quotes, with their sources

• “…and the wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson, writing about Napa Valley wine in The Silverado Squatters (1883).
• “Wine can of their wits the wise beguile, / Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.” Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey, Book XIV.
• “Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used.” Shakespeare, Othello, Act 2, Scene 3. It is Iago who says it, so watch who is pouring.
• “O, for a beaker full of the warm South.” John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale (1819).
• “A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou.” Edward FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
• “Give me wine to wash me clean / Of the weather-stains of cares.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, From the Persian of Hafiz, in his Poems (1847).
• “Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.” Psalm 104:15, King James Bible.
• “Nunc est bibendum.” “Now is the time to drink.” Horace, Odes, Book 1, Ode 37, written to celebrate a victory.
• “In vino veritas.” “In wine, truth.” A proverb older than its Latin form: Pliny the Elder recorded it as a common saying in his Natural History, and the Greeks had their own version before him.

Wine quotes for friends

• “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart.” Ecclesiastes 9:7, King James Bible. A lovely toast for any table.
• “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.
• “A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.” Often attributed to the American writer Clifton Fadiman.
• “Life is too short to drink bad wine.” A popular saying with no known author.
• “Good friends, good wine, good times.” Anonymous, and none the worse for it.

Funny wine quotes

• “I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.” Often attributed to W. C. Fields.
• “I enjoy long, romantic walks down the wine aisle.”
• “I'm not a wine snob. I'm a wine enthusiast with high standards.”
• “Wine is the answer. What was the question?”
• “I'm ageing like a fine wine. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.”
• “Wine: because adulting is hard.”

These are internet favourites with no known author. I have left out the jokes about doctors, diets and drinking too much: wine is a pleasure, not a medicine, and the best evenings are the ones you remember.

Short wine quotes and captions

• Wine not?
• Sip happens.
• Uncork and unwind.
• Savour the pour.
• Love the wine you're with.
• Bottled poetry. (Thank you, Stevenson.)
• In vino veritas.
• Sell the feeling, not the score. My own, from years on the restaurant floor.

Famous lines with no reliable source

You will see these everywhere, always with a famous name, but I could not trace any of them to something that person wrote or said. Use them if you love them, but say “often attributed to”.

• “Great wine requires a madman to grow the vine, a wise man to watch over it, a lucid poet to make it, and a lover to drink it.” Often attributed to Salvador Dalí.
• “Wine is the intellectual part of a meal; meat is merely the material.” Often attributed to Alexandre Dumas.
• “Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.” Often attributed to Napoleon.
• “Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” Often attributed to Galileo.
• “Men are like wine: some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” Often attributed to Pope John XXIII.
• “Wine is constant proof that God loves us.” A misquote. Benjamin Franklin wrote, in a 1779 letter, about rain falling on vineyards and turning into wine, “a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy”.

More quotes from and about the trade, with full sources: sommelier quotes, and who really said them.

How to use a wine quote

• In a toast: one line, then raise your glass. Stevenson or Ecclesiastes work at any table.
• In a caption: keep it short, and credit the author when there is one.
• On a card or a gift tag: a classic with its source looks thoughtful. Pair it with the bottle: Keats with something from the warm South, Bollinger with champagne.
• When in doubt: “often attributed to” costs nothing and keeps you honest.

Questions people ask