Who’s Afraid
OF THE BIG BAD WINE? alf my family members were strict Calvinists and fiercely anti-alcohol, and the rest were rather fond of a spot of alcoholic cheer after a hard day’s work. The result of all this division was that we kids grew up knowing there were times when people sat sipping a relaxing glass in cheerful company in the lounge and other times when drinking was done furtively behind closed bedroom doors. One uncle was a firebrand preacher who insisted on Bible readings and prayers every evening during his occasional visits to the farm. When he was a house guest there was never a bottle of anything stronger than orange squash on display. Bottles of anything stronger were quietly moved to the bedroom for secret consumption. I’ve often thought about this and considered it strange that anybody should be so afraid of alcoholic drinks. Every population throughout history
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has found a way to make some form of alcoholic drinks. Prehistoric cavedwellers probably discovered that if you crushed ripe fruit and left it in a calabash for long enough it caused you to do interesting things like dance and sing and make uninhibited love. Oriental folk created rice wine, African tribes brewed sorghum beer, Russians made vodka from potatoes, and elephants in Mpumalanga partied in the moonlight after eating fermented marula berries. The ancient Greeks and Romans were enthusiastic vintners and the very earliest form of writing— Sumerian cuneiform letters pressed into clay tablets—turned out to be records of good and bad wine vintages. Alcohol has played an important role in almost every religion throughout the millennia. It has even been dubbed “aqua vitae”, the water of life. It is strange, then, that there is a constant rumble of disapproval wherever alcohol
is enjoyed. The reason, of course, is that, like so many of life’s gifts, alcohol can be dangerous if used incorrectly. But so can motoring, scuba diving, mountaineering and skiing. It’s not cars that kill pedestrians; it’s careless drivers and stupid pedestrians. It’s not knives that kill people, it’s the angry criminals who use them for the wrong reasons. Cars and knives play an essential role in our daily lives. We seldom hear of marching mobs demanding the banning of cars or knives. So, rather than rant about the evils of the demon alcohol, let’s teach our children about the history and benefits of the “water of life”. Maybe wine appreciation should be introduced as a school subject. In fact, there are several sensible schools that have already introduced it into their curricula. Cheers to them!
Illustration by: Chloé Damstra
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Dave Biggs on why we’re still stuck on the evils of alcohol
SOUTH AFRICAN CONNOISSEUR
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2020/02/03 11:51 AM
