Andre Simon discusses Wine

Sunday, 1 February 2009

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" ... England long since ceased to be a wine drinking nation .."

For the attention of future devotees

To see the source of the picture go to

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1951:-ANDRE-SIMON:-THE-ART-OF-GOOD-LIVING,-Revised-Ed_W0QQitemZ200309650878QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090213?IMSfp=TL090213113003r13401

It is an auction site but the starting price was very low in February 2009.

Learn more about the book by using Google - put this in and click "web pages".

"The Art of Good Living" Andre Simon

You then click the first result to find an article written for the International Wine and Food Society web site. Find Andre Simon on the left.

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The Art of Good Living
André L Simon

A Contribution to the better Understanding of Food and Drink together with a Gastronomic Vocabulary and a Wine Glossary

1951
Michael Joseph, London

André Louis Simon (1877–1970) was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century, and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years. In 66 years of authorship, he wrote 104 books. For 33 years he was one of London's leading champagne shippers; for another 33 years active president of the Wine & Food Society. Although he lived in England from the age of 25, he always remained a French citizen. He was both Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and holder of the Order of the British Empire.

More at
http://www.andresimon.co.uk/about_andre.html

From now until stated otherwise, the passages given are from the book.

There are people – millions of them – for whom life simply means keeping body and soul together for as long as possible; they eat and they drink when and what they can. But there are others; there are men and women who not only live but enjoy life; who fully appreciate all that is good and beautiful, be it purple moors or the blue sea, beautiful music or beautiful wines. They are not gross materialists; on the contrary; they loathe the greed and intemperance of the glutton; they are blessed with that innate love of harmony which makes us pause and forget our cares when in our soul the echo of Beauty’s call is heard

. . . . . . . . . …. p 35

In all times and among all nations, we find the praises of wine sung by the poets and we find also wine more highly valued as men become more civilized. And how could it be otherwise since Wine is harmony. What tonality, what modulations, what a melody there is for the connoisseur in a glass of brilliant wine, fragrant with the subdued perfume of verbena and violets, as softly it flows upon its downwards and last journey, lightly touching the taste chords of the palate!

Of course, it is quite possible to live – to live a long and virtuous life - without having ever tasted a glass of wine, looked at a picture or heard a note of music, but what a life!

. . . . . . . . . …. . . p 36

What is Wine?

Wine is the living blood of the grape. Wine is harmony; a marvellously complex and well-balanced blend of ever so many different substances in a solution of water and alcohol.

. . . . . . . . . . ….. p 36

Wine is the living blood of the grape: it possesses life; it is liable to sickness and doomed to death.

. . . . . . . . . . ….p 38

Wine is purer than either water or milk because no typhoid or other deadly germ can live in wine.

. . . . . . . . . . . .. p 37

Wine requires and repays care, the loving care which is the only care that is intelligent and worthy of so precious a gift.

. . . . . . . . . . .… p38

The bulk of the wine made every year from the world’s vineyards is just plain, honest, rough wine; very cheap, not always pleasant, but very wholesome.

Much wine is also made which can justly claim to be both fair and honest as well as moderate in price.

Some wine, in particularly favourable years, is made from a comparatively few world-famous vineyards and may rightly boast to be in a class by itself; such wine is never cheap; it is very fine and there is never enough of it.

. . . . . . . . . . . .p 37

If any proof were wanted that England long since ceased to be a wine drinking nation, one would only have to turn to English sauces: Apple sauce (sweet), Bread sauce (cloves), Curry sauce, Horseradish sauce, Mint sauce, Onion sauce, all sauces which may be excellent with water, beer or whisky, but not wine.

. . . . . . . . . . . . p 83

Wine
Pages 35-38

To appreciate form and colour, sound and scent, the true perspective and the right place which give to all things their greatest charm and value, is a gift of which artists have been given a fuller share than the rest of us, but it is by no means their monopoly; it is our common heritage, the very core of what we are pleased to call Civilization.

There are some well-meaning people in the world, who would be only too pleased to understand wine, but who are convinced that it is beyond them; they imagine that they lack the time, the disposition or the means to become wine connoisseurs. In this they are entirely wrong. Are there not a great many people who can neither paint nor play, and yet thoroughly enjoy good music and fine painting? They can also enjoy good wine.

When grapes are ripe they are gathered and crushed: then their sweet juice ferments and becomes wine.

Fermentation may be slow or quick, partial or complete, satisfactory or otherwise, but it is as inevitable as it is natural. It transforms grape-sugar into alcohol and grape-juice into wine. There never has been and there can never be any wine without alcohol.

There are many different kinds of wines, because there are many different species of vines, because of the great differences which exist between the soil, aspect and climate of all the vineyards of the world, and because of differences between various methods of growing grapes and making wine.

A sound wine is a healthy wine; health alone is harmony.

Good wine may become worthless, if badly kept or kept too long, but no bad wine will ever be made better by age or attention; the longer it is kept, the worse it will be.