The Wine Bible Quotes

“I love wine because it is one of the last true things. In a world digitized to distraction, a world where you can’t get out of your pajamas without your cell phone, wine remains utterly primary. Unrushed. The silent music of nature. For eight thousand years, vines clutching the earth have thrust themselves upward toward the sun and given us juicy berries, and ultimately wine. In every sip taken in the present, we drink in the past—”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Terroir is a way by which man uses soil, vine, and climate to express a trait in wine. Terroir isn’t a hierarchy for quality, but rather a mantle for the sense of identity. This notion is a sensitive one in times of changing fashions. Wine is diversity, and terroir is a real way to escape the monotony of daily life.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“There’s volumes to be said for a wine that takes you three glasses to decide whether you find it compelling or repellent.” — EVAN AND BRIAN MITCHELL The Psychology of Wine”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“believe matter most in determining whether a wine is great: distinctiveness, balance, precision, complexity, beyond fruitness, length, choreography, connectedness, and the ability to evoke an emotional response.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“cabernet sauvignon is the offspring of sauvignon blanc (which, one day, thought to be in the mid-1700s, had a nice moment in nature with cabernet franc, resulting in cabernet sauvignon).”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“According to Levitin, it takes a minimum of ten thousand hours of practice (equivalent to three hours a day for ten years) to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything. So no matter if you’re a concert pianist, a gymnast, a poker player, or someone who really knows wine, ten thousand hours appears to be the magic number. As it turns out, the brain learns through assimilation and consolidation in neural tissues. Levitin’s work firmly suggests that the more experiences you have with something, the stronger the learning becomes. But there’s one critical qualifier. You can’t just practice something—you have to actually care about what you practice.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“The best way to learn nothing about wine is to continue to drink what you already know you like.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“I love introverted wines because, like introverted people, they know they are good; they don’t have to show off.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Drinking wine then—as small as that action can seem—is both grounding and transformative. It reminds us of other things that matter, too: love, friendship, generosity.”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Great wine is about nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, qualities that keep you coming back for another taste. Rejecting a wine because it is not big enough is like rejecting a book because it is not long enough, or a piece of music because it is not loud enough.” — KERMIT LYNCH,
Adventures on the Wine Route”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Great wines have flavors—whatever those flavors are—that are precise, well defined, and expressive. Imagine”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Great wine is about nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, qualities that keep you coming back for another taste. Rejecting a wine because it is not big enough is like rejecting a book because it is not long enough, or a piece of music because it is not loud enough.” — KERMIT LYNCH, Adventures on the Wine Route”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“not big enough is like rejecting a book because it”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible

“Throughout its history, wine has always been a communal beverage. Drinking it implies sharing, generosity, and friendship. There’s a reason wine is rarely sold in single-serving bottles!”
― Karen MacNeil, The Wine Bible