Old News: Buckley & O'Rourke Drink Funny

A friend of mine once showed me a little column featuring P.J. O'Rourke sampling wine with Christopher Buckley in a blind taste test... actually a blind test followed by a blind drunk test.

Funny? Hell yes. As good as anything by O'Rourke... or as my friend says, as good as anything by C. Buckley.

...Wine--indeed all booze--tastes horrid. This is because of the alcohol. Alcohol's flavor is so bad that no one would ever drink an alcoholic beverage--unless, of course, it contained alcohol. Hence the problem with wine writing. Despite all the hooey about attack and finish, fruits and flowers, round, robust length upon palate and the Robert Parker 100-point scale, we are swallowing the stuff to get high.

In view of this fundamental truth, Mr. Buckley, FYI's editor, and Mr. O'Rourke embarked, one fine afternoon, upon a Blind (Drunk) Wine Tasting. A wide variety of wines were sampled, ranging from the reputedly splendid to the allegedly pitiful. Selection of the better stuff was done by V., proprietor of a quietly chic potables emporium in Washington, D.C. Lesser plonk was chosen on the basis of silly names and ugly labels. Additional expertise came from the pages of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine, 1999 edition. This book was chosen because it is wide-ranging, authoritative, concise and the only wine guide for sale at the local Hallmark card and gift shop.

This is fairly old... in fact, it took place last century. ;) I just ran across it again and had to mention it.