Champagne

In terms of literary pairings, Champagne is the Oscar Wilde of wines. It is witty, deliciously naughty, and, like Oscar, it is sublime. It is hard to imagine Wilde’s sparkling, high-spirited exchanges in the drawing rooms of Belle Epoch London and Paris without also thinking of champagne. 

Napoleon famously said, “In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it.” A hundred years later, Churchill rallied his troops by declaring, “Gentlemen, we fight not only for France, but for Champagne!”

When a London newspaper reporter asked Lilly Bollinger when she drank Champagne she famously answered: I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes, I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it if I am; otherwise I never touch it—  unless I'm thirsty.