WINE, n. Fermented grape-juice known to the Women’s Christian Union as “liquor,” sometimes as “rum.” Wine, madam, is God’s next best gift to man.

Ambrose Bierce

GRAPE, n. Hail noble fruit! — by Homer sung, Anacreon and Khayyam; Thy praise is ever on the tongue Of better men than I am. The lyre in my hand has never swept, The song I cannot offer: My humbler service pray accept — I’ll help to kill the scoffer. The water-drinkers and the cranks Who load their skins with liquor — I’ll gladly bear their belly-tanks And tap them with my sticker. Fill up, fill up, for wisdom cools When e’er we let the wine rest. Here’s death to Prohibition’s fools, And every kind of vine-pest!

Ambrose Bierce

CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else. An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was poured on his lips to revive him.

Ambrose Bierce

Wine, madam, is God’s next best gift to man.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce ( 1842 -1914) An American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist.