 There may not be many people on this planet who, like me, drink only wine which I say is ‘not alcohol but has some.’ By my methodical analyses all such people should be called Vinotalers. I have coined the word after a logical analysis as follows:
A person who eats vegetables only and no meat is a Vegetarian
A vegetarian who eats eggs is (at least in India) called an Eggetarian
A vegetarian who eats fish is a Pesce-Vegetarian or Pescetarian
A vegetarian who does not eat even dairy products is a Vegan
By that logic-if a person who does not drink alcohol (abstains) is a teetotaler
A Vinotaler is a teetotaler who drinks Vino
Some people may argue how a person drinking alcohol can be a teetotaler. My belief which I have translated into a slogan, has been, ‘wine is not alcohol, it has some’ (the simplest explanation being that it is a natural fermentation process of grapes, fruits or any other sugar based product).
Vinotaler must be spelt with a capital V and not a 'v'. He/she should certainly not be called a Winotaler (again no such word in the dictionary and hopefully will never become) by the following logic:
Vinotaler- A person who abstains from alcohol except Vino (Italian word for wine)
Vino is a commonly used word for cheap wine that is available in bulk or from the wine lakes producing millions of liters of inexpensive and cheap quality wine. Jancis Robinson defines it as, 'colloquially and unfairly, English for basic quaffing wine, or plonk' in the Oxford Companion to Wine, 2007 edition. The Indian market is full of vino-especially the French and Indian kind.
Wino (pronounced as a Wine-O) is a slang used for alcoholics one finds, metaphorically, in the gutter. Winos are people who drink excess amount of alcohol, usually cheap; or even too much of cheap wine. The connotation is negative and encompasses the cheap, harmful alcohol (we have those in the hundreds of thousands in India. Here are a few definitions of Wino from various online dictionaries:
· informal word for a person who drinks excessive amounts of cheap wine or other alcohol - Oxford online dictionary.
· slang for someone consuming large amounts of alcohol in wine form. Also used for a wine drinking alcoholic-Weber open dictionary.
· alcoholic, bacchanal, boozer, boozy, drinker, drunkard, inebriate, tippler, winebag, habitual drinker, habitual drunkard, heavy drinker, lush, dissipated, intemperate, lush- Webster's dictionary
· (informal ) a destitute person who habitually drinks cheap wine- Collins dictionary
· slang for someone, especially a down-and-out, addicted to cheap wine; an alcoholic- Chambers dictionary.
Incidentally, for any of the above usages, the words Vino and vino are pronounced as in bambino, casino, chino, cappuccino, latino and not like Wino/wino which is ‘wine-oh’.
Although Vinotaler does not define the quality of wine one may drink-many Vinotalers are known to polish off a bottle or more of wine daily- the term has nothing to do with the quantity or quality of wine imbibed and only indicates that a person abstains but drinks wine.
As already mentioned in these columns, a wine connoisseur is never a Wino though the term has been horrendously used by people often.
If you are a Vinotaler, let us know and join the Vinotalers’ Club! If you are Wino, please get off the wagon, it’s never too late!
Subhash Arora
Tags: Vinotaler, Vino, Jancis Robinson, Wino |