Ómós Digest #73: The bubbles edition!
By Cathryn Bell.
Good Morning All,
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#downwithflutes:
Christmas is around the corner which means life is about to get a little bit nicer because of all the things we’re allowed to do since “it’s Christmas”. Bottomless bowls of miniature chocolates dotted around the house, Baileys in coffee and perhaps the most scandalous allowance of them all – sparkling wine!
Scandalous sparkling wine is not the angle I set off to write this article on, but it’s a niggle that caught a spark of irritation, a vexed little voice that said, “wait, why scandalous?” There’s quite a lot of emotional baggage to unpack when it comes to our wine drinking culture, isn’t there? I’ve mentioned it before in my previous writings that wine is something that we inflict our own limiting beliefs onto (on top of the real monetary ones of course!) caught up in a bundle of values, perceptions and projections, and the drinking of sparkling wines seems to get the brunt of it.
The mindset that we have around sparkling wines, compared to our counterparts on the continent for instance, is very different. Over there, sparkling wines – be it Champagne, proper or various versions of local or neighbouring bubbles – are embraced as casually, appreciatively and reverently as normal still wines. Dinner with pals? Start with bubbles. Afternoon drink? Mixer with bubbles. Little snack? Bubbles. Notice the engagement with food as opposed to solitary confinement to a flute? #downwithflutes!
Yes, I realise that price points of said bubbles over there look very different to over here. Even in the relevant contexts of the different costs of living and spending power, sparkling wines are so much more accessible there than here. However, it’s not just spending power that’s holding us back, it’s the mindset (in my humble opinion).
Boujee bubbles
Drinking bubbles, in our context, for some reason needs to be earned and justified with an excuse or occasion and at the same time, those who have moved to shake off these shackles by opening bubbles just because - shock horror – they want to (and can) are labelled as “boujee”. Bubbles and brunch – frivolous. Champagne, fish and chips – absolute notions!