Colleen Taylor

"I've def been thinking of you though Colleen -- I told my boss he needed to put down the bottle the other day."
--email from a friend

At first blush I was a tad offended-- I thought my friend was saying that his boss' alcohol problem reminded him of me! But I then realized he was referring to the fact that "put down the bottle" is a phrase I use frequently when someone (sober or not) says or does something goofy.

Either way, I suppose, it's nice to be remembered for something!

"Perfume, like wine, is beautiful when you know how to stop."
-Fabrice Penot, co-founder of cult fragrance house Le Labo, in a very well-written article in the July issue of Food & Wine on the similarities between perfume and wine.

The article is chock full of "Lettie Teague (the piece's author) has the best job ever" moments. One of my favorites is when she and The Modern's chic female sommelier spend an afternoon sniffing and shopping at the perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and then repair back to a table at The Modern where they proceed to pop open and drink bottle after bottle of expensive wine, trying to find matches with the perfumes they just sampled. Best girlfriend date ever.

Duff Cooper and Susan Mary Patten in Venice, 1951

"I have already made mention of the happiness I have derived throughout my life from literature, and I should here, perhaps, acknowledge the consolation I have never failed to find in the fermented juice of the grape.

Writing in my sixty-fourth year, I can truthfully say that since I reached the age of discretion I have consistently drunk more than most people would say was good for me. Nor do I regret it. Wine has been to me a firm friend and a wise counsellor.

Often, as on the occasion just related, wine has shown me matters in their true perspective, and has, as though by the touch of a magic wand, reduced great disasters to small inconveniences. Wine has lit up for me the pages of literature, and revealed in life romance lurking in the commonplace. Wine has made me bold but not foolish; has induced me to say silly things but not to do them. Under its influence words have often come too easily which had better not have been spoken, and letters have been written which had better not have been sent.

But if such small indiscretions standing in the debit column of wine’s account were added up, they would amount to nothing in comparison with the vast accumulation on the credit side."

-from Duff Cooper's 1954 autobiography Old Men Forget

Whether you're a drinker or not, it's refreshing to read an old fashioned, unapologetic defense of indulgence of any kind in this age of juice cleanses and detox diets.

"My mother had a theory about Englishmen: They are permanently all two gin and tonics under par. They need two gin and tonics to become human. I’ve got a nasty feeling that’s absolutely true."

-- Hugh Grant in the January 2010 issue of Elle Magazine