DAY 18: GUILTY PLEASURES

The guilty pleasures of life… it’s quite an oxymoron, isn’t it? Because surely something that makes us feel good couldn’t also leave us riddled with guilt, which is after all a negative emotion.

I have a long list of guilty pleasures which all fall under the same banner. They’re different, but the same. Off the top of my head, a few that spring to mind are Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Yes, I’m talking about wine. But what makes wine so good?

THE IMAGE

Every alcoholic drink has some kind of image attached to it. Brandy and Coke, for example, makes me think of braais on someone’s patio, with everyone relaxed, marinating meat and talking about life. Throw in a bowl or two of sticky, sugary ‘mebos’ and a few paper plates, and you’ll quite literally see what I mean.

Beer conjures up images of pubs, Friday evenings after work, sport-watching and a sense of letting go of the stressors from the week that has passed. That top button of your shirt? Yes, it’ll probably be taking a break from its primary task if there are a few beers in sight.

Then, we have the more hard-core stuff: Tequila and Vodka.  They mostly disgust me, and the image here is of sheer and utter madness. A kind of madness I’m happy to have removed myself from as I approach 30.

Finally, we have wine. The visual that springs to mind is of intimate dinners by candlelight, or more free-spirited dinner parties with friends. I’m seeing a drive out to Stellenbosch in the sun, and a classy wine-tasting afternoon for all of 40 or 50 bucks. Without a doubt, wine has attached to it a classier image than other drinks. With wine, the emphasis is on the taste itself, rather than the madness that will likely ensue two hours after your first sip of beer.

THE COMPLEXITY OF TASTE

You could spend a lifetime exploring the different taste sensations of different wines. Bitter, sweet, dry, red, white, fruity, woody – each has its own appeal, and each taste complements a certain style of cuisine.

THE GLASSES AND BOTTLES

Could there by anything more cultured or romantic than pouring wine into elegant, tall, perfectly polished glasses? Not really. There’s such a sense of occasion that accompanies opening a fine bottle of wine around friends. The loud and harsh scraping of a beer cap when it is being opened just doesn’t have the same appeal, does it?

Similarly, wine bottles too can be admired. Once you’ve got a feel for what a good wine is and have shopped around enough, the packaging of a bottle is all the indication you need as to whether you’ll be drinking something a cut above the rest - or not.

IT’S NOT UNHEALTHY

Ok, so a bottle per day of anything alcoholic is not only unhealthy, but hazardous. But enough studies have been done to prove that a glass of wine is actually beneficial to one’s health – I can’t really think of another alcoholic drink that has a single health benefit attached to it.

Wine is my ultimate guilty pleasure, although I have to confess to there being more ‘pleasure’ than ‘guilt’ attached to its consumption. In moderation, it’s delicious, adds a definite richness to any dinner or social event, and... it is possibly the only beverage to have entire farms dedicated to its production. 

Please, go out there and support our farmers.