A recent headline in Forbes said, “France Has So Much Extra Wine, It’s Paying Farmers $215 Million To Destroy It.” That’s just sad. Not because I drink French wine, but because wine is a magical drink that does wonderful things for the world.

France should sell all that wine to the countless Facebook users who claim to drink wine like there’s no tomorrow. There are countless memes, including, “I cook with wine. Sometimes I put it in the food.”

Facebook has 2.9 billion active users. France produces eight million bottles of wine a year. France’s wine surplus might, perhaps, be raken care of if Facebook bought France rather like Musk buying Twitter. However, there a culture clash here since French  wines are intended to be paired with food and Facebook consumption of wine is paired with everything else.

When I visit the Biltmore estate in Asheville, NC, I do pair my wine with food inasmuch as their restaurants serve wine from the estate’s winnery. These are some of my favorite meals because the wine and the food are superior. Elsewhere, I usually drink the most inexpensive wine on restaurant menus (not founting the stuff sold in 55-gallon drums).

In “Fruit of the vine, our spiritual drink,” Stacy Woods writes that,  “Instead, let’s talk about wine in religious settings. For many Christians and Jews alike, the fruit of the vine is holier than any other and plays a significant role in the celebration of faith. A spiritual drink is used to sanctify daily prayers, on holy days, and at weddings, births and deaths. It can be red, white, pink, dry or sweet wine, or even simply grape juice.” This view is, I think, important to many people’s consumption of wine.

Unlike people who drink beer by the six-pack, wine drinkers don’t normally plan to get drunk. They intend to enlarge and, perhaps, santify, their experiences on the journey of life. Wine can be paired with anything meaningful.

I am thinking of wine today because I’m having my first glass in many weeks inasmuch as the antibiotic I was taking could not be paired with alcohol. I don’t know yet if the antibiotics did what they were suposed to do, but I do know that several glasses of Yellowtail Shiraz have paired wll with my mood.

—Malcolm