Beauty for Winos

When you approach aesthetics through the appreciation of wine, you might find much of the history of Western aesthetics to be missing the point.

Western aesthetics traces its origins to Plato who held that under the influence of divine Eros, there is an ascent from the inferior, partial beauty of particular objects to the beauty of eternal ideas. Real, absolute beauty is everlasting, unchanging, and indestructible, a transcendent essence that descends on matter from without. We mortals can be inspired by this ideal. Artists and their patrons can contemplate this perfected beauty striving for an ultimate harmony that can neither be increased nor decreased. But alas our achievements are only pale copies, said Plato. Nevertheless, art must reflect something of these fixed, eternal ideas if we are to take them seriously as art. We admire art that has withstood the test of time, that remains solid while the world around it crumbles.

However, if you take your aesthetic inspiration from wine you celebrate ephemerality, perishability, and fragility. Aromas blink in and out of existence like quantum states. As wine sits in the barrel, bottle, or glass it is always in motion never standing still. When a bottle has been opened it lasts only a few hours. When a vintage is consumed there is nothing left to be appreciated, gone forever. It is dependent on nature which to be appreciated must be caught in the act, never as a finished product. In wine, we celebrate evanescence and the beauty of the transitory. There is no “test of time;” wine can only be appreciated in the moment.

Beauty that is momentary, fleeting, alive has been under-appreciated unless you play with the winos.