WineInk: An empty glass
As we climbed out of Denver International Airport into turbulent skies after take-off last week, it was clear from my seatmate’s white knuckles and the nervous look on her face that she was having a difficult time with the flight.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked feeling a bit helpless.
“Yeah, can you get me a glass of wine?” she replied with a nervous laugh. While she had asked the right guy, I was powerless to meet her request for obvious reasons.
In a short while, the skies began to smooth as we reached our cruising altitude, and we introduced ourselves.
“I usually get to the airport early and have two glasses of Chardonnay before a flight,” my new, still shaky, friend explained a bit sheepishly. “But this is my second day on Sober October, and I didn’t want to quit it too early.”
Admirably, when the steward came by and asked if she would like a glass of wine, she opted for a can of sparkling water.
Her comment, however, immediately suggested several, dare I say it, potential story ideas. The first was her commitment to Sober October, a positive movement that has grown in popularity in recent years, encouraging people to take a break from drinking for 31 days for physical and mental health purposes. What began as a fundraiser campaign for cancer patients in Great Britain in 2013 has influenced millions worldwide to abstain from drinking in the autumn month before the holidays.
But a second, and perhaps more interesting, thought had to do with our (hers, mine, and yours) relationship with wine. While the concept of using chardonnay as a means to calm one’s nerves before a bumpy flight is not necessarily new, it does seem to detour from most winemakers’ original intentions for making wine, which is enjoyment.
It’s easy to just assume that wine is consumed for enjoyment. Weekly, I write a column on the way wine tastes, pairs with food, and makes us feel in a given moment. But it’s that last part — the way it makes us feel — that can be tricky.
How many of us head for the bar and ask for a glass of wine in any and every social situation with the intent of, metaphorically, smoothing out the skies? How many look forward to the end of the day, so that we can ceremoniously open a bottle of wine to celebrate the cessation of our responsibilities? And how many of us look at wine as an escape from the sometimes challenging reality of our lives?
None of those are good reasons for drinking wine — especially too much wine.
I believe that wine, especially in moderation, enhances my life and is a great social lubricant that brings people together. Benjamin Franklin, a noted consumer in the earliest days of our democracy and a lover of drink, once said, “Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” He, of course, was referring to the psychological aspects of wine drinking. And I think we all can agree that less tension and a less hurried existence are positives.
But it is also true that wine can, like anything else, be used and abused for the wrong reasons. I must admit that I have found myself on occasion drinking wine — not just for its intended purpose, but also as a means to benefit from the effects that are imbued by the consumption of alcohol.
While wine does not have the higher alcohol levels as those found in, say tequila, vodka, or other spirits, a bottle of wine with 12% to 15% alcohol by volume can still impact your mood and more importantly your ability to function clearly. And it is easier to justify drinking wine than stronger spirits even though it can have the same effects. It just seems more genteel.
Wine can and does influence our emotions and moods in many ways, as it interacts with the neurotransmitters in our brains. Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, can have a calming effect on our feelings. The dopamine and serotonin levels in our brains may both be altered by the consumption of alcohol, and this may have positive or negative effects on our emotions and how we deal with reality.
The bottom line is that we all need to be aware of the reasons we drink and the impact our drinking has on our lives and on those we care about. We live in a resort town where we work and play hard. It is easy to get into patterns and habits that can have a deleterious effect on our health and that of those around us. Every once in a while, it is important to stop and re-evaluate our relationship with alcohol and perhaps even take charge of our habits. That is where something like participating in a Sober October or a Dry January or — pick your month — can be a positive thing. Putting down your glass for a while may put you in a more positive frame of mind.
My seatmate and I spoke about all of this for much of the flight, and I had the impression that she would, in fact, achieve her goal of acing Sober October.
Just three weeks to go.
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