Wine and the Erotics of Attention

Years ago, I wrote a post asking whether wine could be sexy. I considered alcohol and wine as an aphrodisiac. Wine as a romantic symbol. I even considered the convenient fact that a bottle of wine, unlike a whisky bottle, is just the right amount for two people. But the argument eventually wandered somewhere more interesting. What wine shares with erotic experience has to do with the kind of attention we pay in each case. Desire makes us notice things we would otherwise miss. A glance held for a second too long or a change in tone of voice. The way someone moves a hand. None of this would be remarkable in some other context. But once desire takes over these small differences are significant because we’re not sure what they mean. Wine can solicit that same kind of attention. You sniff a few times and something seems to be happening. A cherry aroma becomes more like plum. When sipping the wine, the tannins seem hard at first, but ten minutes later they feel less severe. Something is…