Editorial: Wine policy wouldn't go down well

Correct glassware is crucial when drinking wine. Photo/Thinkstock

There are few better actors than Paul Giamatti.

His role as failed writer, wine-aficionado, divorcee and borderline alcoholic teacher Miles Raymond in the 2004 comedy Sideways (incidentally an apt word to italicise), still rates as his finest.

In the penultimate scene, downcast and querying whether he'll ever find the right moment to drink his treasured bottle of 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc, he winds up corking it in a fast-food restaurant and drinking from a disposable polystyrene cup.

Apparently the vintage is one of the best, if not the most expensive, Bordeaux wines. Thus, the scene is a wincing one for vino enthusiasts.

Correct glassware, I'm told, is crucial in wine reception. Some attest the shape of the glass directs the wine into the best area of the mouth to embellish the varietal's characteristics.

This art - together with the many theories on the "tongue-map" - continue to be controversial.

However, the proposition that this year's marquee-based Food and Wine Classic events could be banned from serving wine in glass, is outrageous.

This preposterous plastic possibility has been raised as a discretionary condition in the proposed Napier and Hastings joint draft alcohol policy.

While the Sideways scene was hilariously ironic, the notion of showcasing our wine and beer to audiences via plastic vessels would constitute irony without the hilarity.

The only drinking sin I've witnessed to top this was Massey University's Diploma of Agriculture students' penchant to sip beer from gumboots.

Here's anticipating the District Licensing Committee saves us from provincial embarrassment.