This is a new feature -- obit prepping interviews on video. Buchwald appeared weary but still had a twinkle in his eye.
He wrote quite a bit about wine: "When it came to writing about wine, I did what almost everybody does – faked it!"
My favorite piece appears in Drinking, Smoking & Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times, by Sara Nickles, 1994, Chronicle Books, ISBN 0811807843. [Buchwald wrote the piece in 1954.] Extracts include:
If you're serving wine in your own home Mr. Lichine advises you to be very modest. When the bottle is put on table, apologize to your guests. "I'll have to beg your pardon," you might say, "but this is a small, red wine, inconsequential, with hardly any character." If your guests contradict you, start building slowly. After tasting it, remark to some one, "In spite of everything, I do believe some breed, even if it hasn't hit its pinnacle." If no takes the bait, go a peg higher. "You know something, I believe this wine is declaring itself. Why yes, it certainly is. It does have manifestations of greatness at.” By this time, if your remarks still go unheeded, let out all stops. "The French consider this wine as one of most magnificent sovereigns. They laughingly call it the Napoleon of Burgundies. It's a pity it has to be wasted h clods."
Drinking wine in some one else's home is a much easier problem The host is always looking for compliments and if you're not careful, some of the sillier people at the table may start giving them. The thing to remember is always be polite. After tasting the wine a comment like this might be used, "Yes, it does have a pleasing shimmer. Isn't it too bad the nose doesn't live up to the color for it could have been a big, stout boy." Don't let up just because you've won the first engagement. You could continue by saying, "How sad it didn't come from noble soil, because I'm sure it might have taken on a prestige of its own. Yes, I've seen it hap-pen, time and time again, with underprivileged wines." Or if you wish, "It's provocative, I'm sure, but I wouldn't dare put it up against a Haut Brion." Or, "What a delightful name. It almost tastes domestic in flavor."
When speaking of vintages, never refer to a wine as 1935 or 1936. Always drop the nineteen and refer to them as thirty-fours, thirty-fives, thirty-nines, etc. Learn the names of a few rare wines and throw them around as much as you can. If you can associate them with a good French restaurant, it always helps. For example, never say, "I like a Margaux." It's much better to reminisce, "I remember a Margaux I once had at the Grand Vefour in forty-six. What a noble lunch that was."
Never refer to "wine, woman and song" in front of connoisseurs. Next to wine, the other two are so inferior they should not be mentioned in the same breath.
It may be useful when talking about wine to know that Bordeaux comes in slim bottles and Burgundy in squat ones. This always impresses.
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When drinking champagne, always make a remark about the bubbles. You can either take the side that you like the bubbles, or that you're against them. Our favorite line on this subject is, "I like champagne—because it always tastes like my foot's asleep."