Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things – old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
Apothegms [1624], no. 97

One should write not unskillfully in the running hand, be able to sing in a pleasing voice and keep good time to music; and, lastly, a man should not refuse a little wine when it is pressed upon him.
Yoshida Kenko 1283 – 1350
Tsurezure – Gusa (Essays in Idleness) [c. 1340]

I intend to die in a tavern; let the wine be placed near my dying mouth, so that when the choirs of angels come, they may say, “God be merciful to this drinker!”
Walter Map [Mapes] c. 1140 – c. 1210
De Nugis Curialium

When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends.
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
Aristophanes c. 450 – 385 B.
Knights [424 B.C.], l. 92

Mankind . . . possesses two supreme blessings. First of these is the goddess Demeter, or Earth whichever name you choose to call her by. It was she who gave to man his nourishment of grain. But after her there came the son of Semele, who matched her present by inventing liquid wine as his gift to man. For filled with that good gift, suffering mankind forgets its grief; from it comes sleep; with it oblivion of the troubles of the day. There is no other medicine for misery.
Euripides c. 485 – 406 B.C.
The Bacchae [c. 407 B.C.], l. 274

It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.
Heraclitus c. 540 – c. 480 B.C.
On the Universe, fragment 108

Bring water, bring wine, boy! Bring flowering garlands to me! Yes, bring them, so that I may try a bout with love.
Anacreon c. 570 – c. 480 B.C.
Fragment 27

Wine is a peep-hole on a man.
Alcaeus c. 625 – c. 575 B.C.
Fragment 104

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken.
Homer
The Odyssey, bk. XIV, l. 463

Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.
The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, 5:23