WI NE

bacchus

Peter Richards

PENTHEUS [to the guards]: Get hold of him; he’s mocking me and the whole city. DIONYSUS [to the guards]: Don’t bind me, I warn you. [To Pentheus]: I am sane, and you are mad.

EURIPIDES’ The Bacchaeis one of the most famous artistic portrayals of Bacchanalia. In a dramatic portrayal charged with symbolism and lyricism, it depicts how Pentheus, king of Thebes, is punished by Dionysus for refusing to recognise his divinity. Pentheus is torn limb from limb by a frenzied horde of Maenads, one of whom is Pentheus’ own mother, who then proceeds to bear her son’s decapitated head back to Thebes in a triumphal Bacchic trance. It is not only a masterful and memorable exploration of the powerful twin urges inherent in human nature – the rational and cultured versus the instinctive and atavistic – but also gives us a clear picture of how Dionysus, god of wine, was perceived in ancient Greece. Not for them the sanitised, jollified Bacchus of Rome; their Dionysus was something altogether darker, more amoral, a conduit not only to inspired liberation but also to the murkier realms of base human instinct. For the Greeks, or at least the more enlightened ones, Dionysus was a god to be feared and respected, but above all to be recognised. It is interesting to note in this respect that the Greeks usually drank their wine diluted. This was the case, for example,

in symposia, where a large ornamental vase known as a krater was used to mix the wine with water. This practice was considered a mark of civilisation and restraint; by contrast, drinking undiluted wine was seen as barbaric as well as unhealthy. Normal dilution ratios are thought to have varied from between 2:3 to 1:3 parts wine to water, which would have given an alcoholic strength in the final liquid of around 3-8%. These days, it is not uncommon to see table wine at between 13-15% alcohol. There are many reasons for this. One is the increasing prevalence of vineyards in warm climates – the New World in particular – giving rise to higher sugar levels and hence alcohol. Because consumers increasingly demand soft, supple, approachable styles, viticulture the world over is increasingly aimed at promoting proper phenological (flavour and tannin) ripeness, resulting in higher alcohol wines. Moreover, as a society, we are not the diluting type. The result is a quandary. Do we drink less? Or carry on as normal and risk the inevitable hangover and health issues that are the dogged pursuers of Bacchanalian excess? As neither of these options is particularly appealing, I propose an alternative policy. There are many fine wines out there that naturally sport modest alcohol levels. Some of these are often overlooked in the modern era, which is a shame. All of the wines below, for example, are excellent examples of their kind: balanced, food-friendly and, most importantly, capable of being enjoyed in volume. Dionysus would approve.

THELIBERALWINECLUB

Ruth Burrows, Justerini & Brooks, 21 St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LZ. Tel.: 0207 484 6465; Fax: 0207 484 6499

Save over 10% on this discounted mixed case from J&B

Two bottles of each of the following:

1 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2005, Cuttaway Hill 2 Muscadet, Côôte de Grandlieu 2005, Clos de la Séénagerie 3 Riesling QbA 2004, Schloss Lieser 4 Côôte de Brouilly 2004, Domaine des Roches Bleus 5 Epico, Vino de la Tierra Manchuela 2004, Bodegas Eguren 6 Dolcetto d'Alba 2004, Giovanni Corino

Delivery charge (for orders under £250): £15

All prices are by case of 12 and inclusive of VAT. All orders must arrive with either cheque or credit card payment. Cheques to be made payable to Justerini & Brooks Ltd. Delivery charge applies to UK mainland and N Ireland; contact J&B for delivery elsewhere. Offer is subject to availability and J&B's standard terms and conditions, available on request.

STANDARD PRICE £78.44 OFFER PRICE £69.99

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F OOD

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Mark Daniel

THE iniquitous Christian conflations of renunciation with virtue, and of pleasure with vice, endure. To this philosophy, whatever is enjoyable must be wrong; whatever is enjoyed by a minority must be perverse; and whatever entails renunciation of that enjoyment must be praiseworthy. This leads to all sorts of absurd incongruities and injustices. Had Mother Theresa an occasional fondness for rent boys with whips and restraints, she would, de facto, have been immoral –whereas a cantankerous, misanthropic miser who lives ascetically is redeemed. Vegetarians, who place their own fragile sensibilities above the interests of animals and the environment, are cravenly conceded the moral high ground not because they enact good, but because they are incapable of enjoying good food. This is surely the only basis on which every ostentatious Pharisee is suddenly beating his breast over flying. It is welcome news that, after years of unheeded warnings, the media and the general public have acknowledge the undisputable evidence of global warming, and the possibility that it is profligate human waste, rather than sunspot activity, which has caused it. But as every rock star, supermodel and politician rushes conspicuously to bind his carbon feet, far more damaging practices are excused by making a scapegoat of travel. We have no cause to object if the newly green elect to holiday in St. Mawes or Tenby rather than in St. Kitts or Trinidad, and no doubt smugness will compensate for the absence of sunshine; but such dubious sacrifice is all but valueless without regard to food exports. For even when all the shuttling reps, journalists and middle-bracket executives are included, flights account for just 2% of our carbon emissions. So fly to New Zealand or the Marquesas once a year with an easy conscience, provided that you have taught the children to walk, and, above all, insist on eating local. A typical plate of food in the United States has travelled 1500 miles, and food transport within U.S. borders accounts for 572 billion tonmiles –20% of all commodity transport –whilst 172 million tonnes of food are exported by air. In the UK, transport of food and agricultural products account for 35 billion ton-miles within our borders – 13 million tons of CO2 emissions – and 47 million tons of food are imported or exported, most of it for no reason save exploitation of subsidies and exchange-rate movements, to the benefit of no-one but a few giant agribusinesses and market speculators. In 1998, for example, the UK –a country richer than any in Europe in quality dairy products – imported 114,000

metric tons of milk, and exported 119,000 metric tons. Add to such figures the expense of energy and fossil fuels entailed in refrigeration, irradiation and the packaging of food for transport, along with the difficulties of disposing of such packaging (a quarter of household waste is made up of packaging, two thirds of which comes from foodstuffs), and the enormous damage –all paid for by the taxpayer –done to roads by massive supermarket trucks, and the additional mileage required by trips to the out-of-town supermarket, or the economic and social costs to communities of the loss of small local traders... Buy local and holiday on Mars with a clear conscience. Just don’t sanctimoniously renounce a citybreak in Prague and think that you are thereby excused for betraying your local community and the planet by shopping at the supermarket. And no – organic, though a helpful option, runs a distant and today faintly disreputable second to local. I was recently sent a consignment of smoked yellowfin tuna for appraisal. It bore the Soil Association sticker to indicate that it was organic. And it had come from St Helena.

Autumn 2007 | The Liberal | 63