In Vino Veritas

The ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans believed that wine unlocks our tongue and allows the truth to escape, where otherwise it would remain hidden from view, unsaid. But is it always true? Is everything we say when we have had a bit (too much) to drink the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or does alcohol sometimes unlock another side to us, one that allows us to be aggressive, rude and nasty because we are not in control? Do we really mean everything we say in quite the way we say it?

It is, of course, almost impossible to tell without being able to conduct fair and controlled scientific experiments on the subject, something that is exceedingly difficult if not downright impossible. So we have to take a case-by-case view, as we are all different, and reach conclusions on an individual basis. So if certain statements keep recurring when someone is under the influence, that may be a sign that they are troubling him/her but for various reasons he/she is unable or unwilling to express them under normal circumstances; that, though, is as far as one may honestly go.

I have known people who under normal conditions would not hurt a fly, yet become belligerent after a few glasses of wine, aggressive and argumentative. Yet I have seen others do exactly the opposite and shed their aggression and become relaxed, mild and meek as baby lambs, a big smile adorning their face. In the days when people still stupidly drank and then drove - yes, I also have done it a long, long time ago - some would start behaving like Lewis Hamilton while others would drive so slowly and carefully that they were stopped for driving too slowly. Why the difference? Are we wired differently? I'm afraid I don't know the answer...

What I do know is this: there is always a bit of truth in these statements, however small, and should be taken into account, if warily. Just like drunken declarations of undying love and devotion may have disappeared in the cold light of a sober day, to be replaced by an acknowledgement that a degree of desire bolstered by alcohol was at work, so snarled abuse may look stupid to the sober abuser but the reason for expressing it may lurk in the background.

Vino - wine to you and me - is a wonderful, life-enhancing thing and, used wisely, can make our days richer, full of taste and harmony; food is almost always enhanced by a good wine, and sometimes transformed. Wine's taste and texture, infinitely variable, transform mealtimes into joyous experiences. Please do not allow the alcohol side of the equation to take over - the buzz with drinking wine should not be about the alcohol, or not about the alcohol alone.

The truth in wine is the joy it can bring to our lives. The words, the anger, love, hate, passion come from within us to a lesser or greater extent and we use wine as an excuse to loosen our tongues... avoid, please! 'In wine, pleasure, in sobriety, truth' should be our motto.

Alas sometimes it isn't.