Drink Like the French: A Non-Francophile’s POV

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“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.” — MFK Fisher

To drink and enjoy food and wine as the French (and many other cultures do, I’m thinking Italian here), you must first absolve yourself from the confines of drinking only during certain hours, in particular situations or with the intention to feel intoxicated. It’s necessary to examine and actively change the way your mind processes and feels the effects of alcohol, for the French share wine with meals from a young age. This isn’t to say that you won’t or shouldn’t become a little intoxicated — for everything a time and place. However, to enjoy a glass of wine or a single aperitif at an off time of day should never ruin or interrupt your plans and schedule, but simply supplement your experience. Sharing a drink is a form of social engagement. And it’s always a shame to indulge in a portion of pate or a helping of creamy poussin without the joy of a crisp cremant or a round but minerally chardonnay to balance the flavor. There is always that afternoon espresso that you may take with a more leisurely approach by adding a small sip of eau de vie. Life in France is not a tour d’booze. Merely, the French seem to be open to taking pleasure in wine, spirits and espresso if the mood strikes, rather than if the time is right. To taste and savor a product for what it is and what it can achieve paired with food rather than it’s effects is a beautiful and worthwhile way to live.

Drink to health, knowledge and pleasure, like the French, and you will live well.

I’ve considered this concept in conjunction with writing. Writers possess an innate connection to the food and wine community. They have the ability to utilize café and bar culture to supplement their work as well as a distinctive prowess to illustrate the tastes, smells and feelings that a particular the dish or drink invokes. For instance, Hemingway, as a young writer living in Paris wrote in A Moveable Feast, “As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank the cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and make plans.”

No matter where you are in the world, the philosophy that has made the French an authority on the good life is their commitment to hearty living, not to mention a deep and historical knowledge of natural farming and drinking locally. For life in the Pacific Northwest, this approach is difficult. Local wine isn’t always affordable, nor necessarily informed by generations of tradition or established vines. A fun way to approach this is to drink local when possible, and delve into reasonably priced imported options with intent. For example, do some research, choose an interesting French bottle that fits your budget and design a meal around the wine’s sense of place and how it’s consumed by its region’s locals. Pick up a bottle of dry Alsatian gewurztraminer and eat it with the classically pungent munster cheese or prepare a cassoulet alongside a meaty gigondas.

Take cues from the Jura region whose people drink their light-bodied and soft, elegant reds first, opting for the more robust, mouth-filling whites second. Conjure visions of Beaujolais, sometimes a serious wine from one of the regions 9 Cru vineyard sites, other times a simply light and floral gamay served with a slight chill. Perhaps not entirely French, but I’ve been enjoying cooler, lighter reds with a leisurely lunch and postponing a more in-depth relationship with a bottle of white later in the evening.

Another way the French utilize every day wine such as vin du pay or vin de table is through mixing with cassis and other fruit or herbal liquors and spirits.

No matter where you’re drinking, respect wine and spirits for their artisanal qualities. Experiment and appreciate their history and significance.

My favorite resources for drinking and living like you mean it, not just like the French:

• MFK Fisher, American writer of the 1940s, one of the earliest food writers to explore and detail food culture in France
• The Art of Eating by Edward Behr, a quarterly journal centered around food and wine through an informed, intellectual lens
• Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, which brilliantly details his life in Paris
• David Lebovitz’s blog, mostly centered around sweets, but also life in Paris
• The NYT food and wine blog, where Eric Asimov writes great articles about both obscure wines and the pursuit of enjoying wine in general