wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

In vino veritas

Probably the best known and most quoted saying about wine. However, the original was written in ancient Greek, as it is attributed to the Greek poet Alcaeus (*630 BC) from the Greek island of Lesbos and means "There is truth in wine". This is to say that under the influence of alcohol, people are far more willing to tell the truth or openly give in to their feelings than when they are sober. The phrase was also often used in connection with "in aqua sanitas", which means "in water lies health".

The saying was used by many great minds. These included the Greek philosophers and poets Theognis (around 600 BC), Aeschylus (525-456 BC), Plato (427-347 BC) and Theocritus (300-260 BC), as well as the Latin version by the Roman authors Horace (65-8 BC) and Pliny the Elder (23-79). A well-known dispute in the drama "Wallenstein - Piccolomini" by Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) also describes this phenomenon: (Terzky) The wine speaks from him! Do not hear him, I beg you. (Isolani) Wine invents nothing, it only talks it out.

In Vino Veritas - Schriftrolle mit diesem Spruch

Objectively speaking, the matter of truth is a fallacy. Nobody tells the truth because they have drunk wine or enjoyed alcohol. It is much more true that the inhibition threshold decreases with increasing drunkenness. So you say things that you would never say if you were sober. And that doesn't necessarily mean they are true. The "truth" refers to the fact that someone under the influence of alcohol says what they are thinking. It follows, however, that people do not say what they think when they are sober, but "lie" or at best say nothing.

The Canadian physician William Osler (1849-1919) commented on this: ' Alcohol does not make people do things better, but makes them less ashamed of doing things badly. You don't become a different person under the influence of alcohol. The Swiss journalist Peter Rüedi described this brilliantly: Alcohol is the drug of individuality. It enhances it, but it does not recreate it. It makes a hollow head babble, roar, stammer, brood and sleep. It makes a brilliant head sparkle, rave, howl, laugh, fall silent. Alcohol only ignites the flammable material in a brain. See also under country proverbs, customs, toasts and quotes.

Picture: Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer

Voices of our members

Thomas Götz

Serious sources on the internet are rare - and Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one such source. When researching for my articles, I regularly consult the wein.plus encyclopaedia. There I get reliable and detailed information.

Thomas Götz
Weinberater, Weinblogger und Journalist; Schwendi

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

26,379 Keywords · 46,984 Synonyms · 5,323 Translations · 31,713 Pronunciations · 202,114 Cross-references
made with by our author Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer. About the Lexicon

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS