Michele Berdy - The Vintage Veritas
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Friday, August 18, 2006. Issue 3478
The Vintage Veritas
By Michele A. Berdy
Хлебное вино: vodka
The one good thing about the wine crisis this summer is ... well, there isn't anything good about it, unless you enjoy empty wine stores and weeping sommeliers. I have, however, discovered the single worst thing about the wine crisis: It's when that nice bottle of dry white that you used to buy for 336 rubles ($12.50) finally, blessedly, reappears on the shelf -- for 486 rubles.
Remind me again why I am paying nearly 50 percent more for my favorite bottle of wine?
Since I can't drink wine in Russia, I've been reading about wine in Russia. This has, predictably, put me in an even fouler mood. In fact, I'm feeling so nasty I've decided it's time to destroy one of the most dearly held Russian myths. Are you sitting down? Here it is: Historically, Russians have not been serious drinkers. Yes, you read that right. At the dawn of written history, Russians only made and drank mildly alcoholic beverages: мёд (mead) and пиво (beer). Руси веселие есть пити! (Drink is the joy of Russia!) Prince Vladimir may have declared, but they were drinking low-octane brews.
One kind of vodka made of rice, called буза, was introduced to Russians by the Tatars. Another kind of vodka, appeared in Russia via Byzantium much later -- only in the 15th century.
Вино (wine) appeared in Russian chronicles from the 11th century, but then вино meant виноград (grapes). In fact, if you are flipping through old books, you can find the odd phrase сушёное вино, which now would mean "dried wine" today, but at that time meant "raisins" (now called изюм). Вино only makes its written debut as an alcoholic beverage at the end of 16th century. Then it was sometimes called горячее вино (literally "hot" grapes) to distinguish it from "cold" grapes on the vine. And, according to historical documents, the alcoholic content was so much higher than what Russians were used to, they found it extraordinarily intoxicating. In fact, вино was used to refer to all strong alcoholic beverages; vodka was sometimes called хлебное вино (literally "grain wine").
True, once vodka appeared, Russians caught on quickly. Foreigners 400 years ago were shocked by the strength of Russian vodka: Стоит подбавить немного серы -- и готово питие для ада (All you have to do is add a bit of brimstone and you've got the perfect drink for hell.)
But for several centuries wine remained an outsider, as evidenced by the fact that there aren't many Russian expressions that involve wine. You might hear вся правда в вине, the Russian version of in vino veritas; a couple of expressions that play on вино and вина (guilt), such as вино вину творит (wine begets guilt.); or the cheery Пей вино, да не брагу; люби девку, а не бабу. (Drink wine, not moonshine; love a maiden, not a matron.)
But by the 19th century wine began to appear in Russian literature, and particularly poetry, as a kind of magical elixir. To read page after page of ecstatic poetic paeans to wine -- as you sip your cup of herbal tea -- is as close to masochism as you can get without leather restraints and a whip. In Russian poetry, вино is горькое (bitter), сладкое (sweet), густое (thick), алое (scarlet), волшебное (magical), отравленное (poison), златое (golden), искромётное (effervescent), ледяное (icy). Льётся вино струями (the wine flows in torrents)... вино веселит сердце человека (wine cheers a person's heart)...
I'm with the poet Marina Tsvetayeva, who wrote: А пить ему вино, не квас,/ Вот будет первый наш приказ. (He shall drink -- not kvas! -- but wine! / That's the first decree that we shall sign.)
But since I'm not signing the wine decrees these days, Moscow today is as it was in 1436, when a foreign traveler noted in astonishment: Вино москвитяне не пьют (Muscovites don't drink wine.)
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
posted by Kate @ 6:28 PM
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