Author Elliot Essman responds to frequently asked questions about
Use Wine to Make Sense of the World.
Q. Is the book about the world's wine regions?
A. No, the book is not about wine geography. Use Wine to Make Sense of the
World
is designed to be an investigation into ways in which wine can enhance our understanding of
our lives.
Q. What are the book's subject areas?
A. Using wine to make sense of other people, the senses, desire and lust, the natural world,
the body, language, and the brain.
A. Is Use Wine to Make Sense of the World serious or tongue in cheek?
Q. That's up to the reader. I use plenty of humor, but I really do think wine makes life more
worthwhile, and I hope the seven main sections of the book show it. I cover some serious
subjects, but in the final analysis I hope the book is considered light reading; there are too
many grim things in this world.
Q. What are your credentials in the world of wine?
A. I have an advanced certification in Wine and Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education
Trust through the International Wine Center in New York. I am a James Beard Foundation
Journalism Award nominee in the beer, wine and spirits category. I am a career writer and
essayist and make a full time profession of writing about and reviewing wines.
Q. May I begin reading the book at any point?
A. Yes. The book is divided into a number of short essay sections, each of which can be read
and enjoyed separately, in any order.
Q. How much do I need to know about wine in order to benefit from the book?
A. The book presupposes that the reader has at least a basic knowledge of wine, the level that
would be covered in any standard entry-level wine appreciation book or course.
Q. What about people who are alcoholics or have drinking problems?
A. I allude to these issues, but, as with most books about alcoholic beverages, this book is
designed for people who tend to drink moderately and who are not alcoholics or problem
drinkers. Even when I talk about getting “drunk” or inebriated, I am implicitly
referring to an experience to be enjoyed occasionally rather than habitually.
Q. You write about desire and lust. Do you believe people who drink wine together ought to
have romantic and sexual connections with each other?
A. Yes, if appropriate, but I stress that humans can share the sensual experience of wine
without necessarily having physical or sexual contact with each other.
Q. Do you recommend individual wines?
A. No I do not. The world of wine availability changes too rapidly to allow this. I strive to
write in more general terms, hoping to give my reader greater discrimination when they go
out and purchase or order wine. I do, however, refer broadly to various types of wine and
occasionally recommend they be sampled.
Q. You frequently counsel people to try many different wines. Can't a person have a good
experience with wine if they drink the same wine every time?
A. Not in my opinion. An important part of the uplifting experience of wine is an enjoyment
of wine's inexhaustible variety.
Q. You also counsel readers sometimes to spend more money on wine.
A. Yes, now and then, if they know they will get better wine (this isn't always so).
Q. What about the wine poems you include in the book? Why do you write them?
A. I enjoy writing poetry and think wine is a fine subject for poetic expression.
Q. Can you tell us more about the types of poems you have written?
A. The five Wine Haikus follow the 5/7/5 syllable convention of Japanese Haiku. The poem
In the Wine Shop is in the form of an Italianate sonnet in the style of Spenser. The
poem Wine As It Stands Alone is written in accented verse. The poem Wine and
the Proper Use of Lips is in the form of an Alexandrine, strictly following the twelve
syllable line based on two caesuras of six syllables that is the standard in French poetry; in
my case the model is Charles Baudelaire. The poem Ode to Terroir follows the three
stanza eleven line rhyming model of Keats' Ode to Autumn.
Q. You integrate various essays into the book that are not entitled Use Wine to Make Sense
of anything. Why?
A. The book is designed to be an enjoyable browser, to stimulate the reader to look at wine
in new ways. As such I have sprinkled in the best of my independent essays on wine to round
out the book.
Q. You use some foreign terms in the book, from French, Italian and other languages. Aren't
you afraid many readers will be put off by these?
A. I use these terms in several small articles that I feel will interest many readers who enjoy
learning about languages. Those who do not are welcome to skip these sections. That said,
most serious students of wine will benefit from learning a few foreign terms.
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