What proportion of your WINE drinking is done along with meals - brunch, lunch, dinner? Include pre-dinner drinks if having, say, a glass of Champagne before dinner in a retaurant, but exclude drinking on other occasions where food is not involved or is confined to very light snacks (olives, nuts, crisps, etc.).
I don't know the identities of who votes in the polls, so all secrets are safe, but although we only have 20 or so votes in, I am intrigued that at least one of us so far drinks wine on its own, without food, 75% or more of the time. If that person wishes to step forward I'd be fascinated to know what their typical wine consumption situation looks like, but of course staying anonymous is also absolutely fine!!!
I confess! Generally as a family we eat quite early in the evening as every week night one or all of the children are then racing off to do various activities. I will then often open some wine later, perhaps around 9-9.30 and drink it without food.
Cheers Ed - that makes sense. So I imagine, if family circumstances were different, the pattern might be slightly different too. Thanks for responding.
I also assumed tasting events were excluded. If not the percentage becomes tricky to calculate. Are we talking about time, volume, number of different wines, or occasions?
Steve, yes hopefully it is clear that tastings are excluded: the question is about consumption. I don't really mind how people calculate, but it is about how much of your wine drinking, for enjoyment, is done with a meal and how much is done without accompanying food.
25-50% for me I often enjoy wine before food more than with food . I rarely order wine to go with food but often the reverse .
I hardly ever drink wine when not eating, perhaps that means I’m not a proper wine lover? Decent bitter and the occasional Campari cover my non-eating drinking moments. A very occasional Mosel Riesling in the garden as an elevensies treat is probably my only exception.
Good points Jim - I can happily drink beer without food (but honestly it's not not that often) or an Aperol Spritz/Campari, even cocktails in some circumstances, but almost never wine. I wonder why that is?
I always need something to nibble when I'm drinking beer too, plain crisps, nuts or even the odd packet of pork scratchings are welcome salty foils.
Agreed Jim - I do the same, but those snacks don't count as real food I suppose. In Italy, even when you drink an aperitivo you are always given some form of nibble to accompany it. The Italians really do abhor drinking without ingesting something alongside the alcohol - very civilized in my estimation.
I think you will see a correlation between wine drunk without food and the number of young children the person has!!! My non-food consumption shot through roof once we had kids. 50% for me - we just barely manage to get the little feckers in bed before slumping on the sofa supping straight from the bottle.
I'm an under 25%er for the simple reason that I prefer to drink water with my meals. It goes with everything. I also appreciate wine a great deal more on its own than when paired with food.
Matt, I admire the purity of your habits. Food can certainly compromise my clarity of observation of wine. To honour un vin de contemplation requires a kind of meditation. Whether that's solitary or not is a matter of preference. Yet the combined effect of food, wine and company can offer a richly shared human experience. Perhaps we might distinguish the contemplative from the social, while acknowledging that this may be a venn diagram.
I find that the kind of wine I like only reveals half of itself without food and I dislike the physical sensation of its arrival in the digestive system. Wine is the delivery vehicle of choice for the alcohol dependent middle classes, it seems to me, and I think it's quite dangerous.
I really don't get a lot of pleasure other than academic from drinking wine on its own, without any sort of food (here I am including snacks - something/anything to nibble alongside). Tasting is of course different, but for example, on the plane back from Italy on Friday one of our party knew the BA Purser and he came up with complimentary quarter bottles of Champagne for each of us. A lovely gesture and I enjoyed the wine, but when he returned with four more later in the flight, I was the only one to turn it down - I just couldn't comtemplate drinking any more, and the moment had passed to buy some crisps or similar.
I should qualify that what I meant was, couldn't contemplate drinking any more without something to nibble on - a full-size bottle of Champagne wouldn't have been a problem had he provided that
Tom, you would not have approved of a recent member review on the TWS website which described the French red in question as a ‘session wine’.
Yes indeed. If the poll would count this as 'with food', then I'd be up around 90%. If wine drunk after the meal is finished counts as 'without food' then I'd be below 25%
I’m actually very shocked at the 90% or more with food. I do bridge across the percentages as can start a weekend with a glass or two then some food, maybe cheese or dessert all with wine. Certain wines will absolutely need food but I drink plenty that don’t.
My post-meal drinking is scotch, so effectively outside the brief. Including sherry and vermouth before the meal, often while cooking pushed me to 90% plus. Edit: I should also say that if dinner is some way off, we snack on things like hummous, baba ghanoush, olives, labneh (thick youghurt), and maybe some smoked fish or tuna from a can. I drink plenty of draft at a bar or pub so again, outside the brief.